Author: A Little Faith Lift…Finding Joy Beyond Rejection
www.alittlefaithlift.com
AWSA (Advanced Writers & Speakers Assoc.)
Loose Lips Sink Ships
Let’s face it. We love to be heard, to have others want to listen to what we have to share. The spotlight on us, all ears attentive. And even though we have been entrusted with a “secret” that no one else knows, even though we have been told not to share, we can’t help it. Well, we can…but we don’t. After all, we have the spotlight. We can be heard.
There are a few places in Scripture where an individual is told to keep silent but doesn’t. Not a big deal…except of course, it is. This morning, while reading in the gospel of Mark, I read that a leper begged Jesus to heal him. Jesus, “moved with compassion,” cleansed the outcast. In 1:43, Jesus “strictly” warns the leper not to tell anyone. He is to go to the priest and follow the protocol for a healed leper. And. Not. Talk.
I get why the healed man couldn’t keep his mouth shut. I mean, it’s not like people aren’t going to see the difference. One day, you’re covered in sores. The next, you’ve just been given the $7000 HD Diamond and Ruby Peel facial. (Think baby’s skin.) When people ask, the leper can’t pretend that he doesn’t notice that he no longer has sores covering his body. He has to be ecstatic, for he has been given a new life.
Did Jesus really expect him to lie about the miraculous healing and act like he had no idea how his body had changed? Couldn’t he just tell his BFF or his family? And trust them to keep his secret?
Uh, nope. This quote proves it: “If you want to keep a secret, tell no one.” Get that? Not even your pinky-promise friend because your gut is churning to share something that nobody else knows.
Have you ever noticed how all attention turns towards you when you start a conversation with this: “You wouldn’t believe what I just heard!” Does anyone speak to your sin and respond with, “If this is something negative about someone, I don’t want to hear it,” or “Is this something we need to know?” or “Are you positive that what you are sharing is the truth and needs to be told?” Probably not. More than likely, all ears turn your direction, eager to hear the juicy gossip you are ever-so-willing to divulge. Why are we so eager to share? According to Behavioral Scientist Jessica Salerno’s research in “Morality, Punishment, and Revealing Other People’s Secrets,” …people keep their own immoral secrets to avoid being punished but are motivated to reveal others’ secrets to punish them for immoral acts.” Hypocrisy at its finest!
Scripture refers to our tongues as “a restless evil.” Get that? Our tongues are sins on steroids! John Gotti once said this: “Don’t ever say anything you don’t want played back to you someday.” Smart advice.
“Loose lips sink ships” is a slogan coined in World War II by the War Advertising Council and was part of a larger propaganda campaign warning that careless talk might be overheard by enemy spies and could undermine the war effort. The imagery stirred guilt by implying that openly discussing sensitive matters could have disastrous consequences.
The next time we consider loosing our lips to share some information with which we have been entrusted not to share, perhaps the psalmist’s prayer should be our own: “Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips” (Psalm 141:3).