Spoon

This is one of my best cooking spoons, made by All Clad. It was a free gift from the company after I bought a large set of pots and pans that cost an arm and a leg. I made chili with it today, so that is what is in the pot.

What you can’t tell from the picture is that this chili is hot as fire. I accidentally added too much chipotle chili powder and while we like it with a little kick, this was too much. So I Googled “my chili is too spicy” and got a handful of suggestions, all of which I tried.

I added an acid (more tomato paste), I added a sweetener (a bit of sugar), I added more “things” like onions and water. All the time as I was trying to dilute the heat, I had to add seasonings to make it actually taste decent, so I ended up adding a lot of salt and oregano.

It’s passable for dinner, especially if we eat it with rice, chips, a lot of cheese and sour cream. My poor daughter who is allergic to dairy will have to make do with the heat. She’ll probably have to offset it with more rice.

As I was sweating over salvaging this meal, I thought of one of our family Bible readings last week, from the book of James.

"The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” James 3:6-8

Our tongues, our words, can also be a fire, a *world of evil*. It can corrupt the whole body and set one’s life on fire. Evil words are themselves set on fire by hell!

Scary stuff. Scarier because it is so true, and something that I have experienced too often in my life. Before I came to Christ, I used to just say what I wanted to say. I would have some restraint at some times, sure, but if I got super angry, or just was at the end of my rope, sometimes I said things that were destructive, that set my friendships and relationships on fire. It was usually the words, plus the tone, plus the volume. 

Like the chipotle powder in my chili, once the words are out, they are out. There is no way to get them back, no way to “unsay” them. The only thing to do, if you care, is damage control, like I had to do with my chili. 

Sometimes the damage control works, sometimes it doesn’t. All the time, thoughtless, selfish, intentionally mean words wound, and those wounds leave a scar, even with the best damage control. 

And words can corrupt the speaker as well! This I also know as true. Words spoken in anger have frequently made me more angry, and served as fuel to say more destructive things. And after all the evil words are spoken, the speaker feels corrupt. It is as if the words themselves have tainted their very speaker.

Fires destroy, and once the flame is lit, there is no telling the extent of the damage. 

Best to use gentle, soothing words, or no words at all. I truly hope to keep these verses in my heart and with Christ, to learn to be gentler and kinder with my words.