The tyrannical "gift of gab"...

I love to speak. I love speaking to large groups and small groups. I love having one on one conversations and also, dialoging with multiple people at once. I relish the opportunity to verbally present at least some sort of quasi-beneficial narrative or proposition to any and all whose ears would perk in my general vicinity. If I ever find it a proper time to interject with an opinion or proverbial "food for thought," I spring into vocal action. Needless to say, I'm a talker.

The good news is that I work with students and have ample opportunity to speak both to and with them. I absolutely love these students. I enjoy sharing with them God's Word, bits pieces of life, advice, stories and sometimes even tough love. I find myself continually engaged with these students in the sharing of thoughts, hopes, dreams and difficulties via word of mouth. I'm thrilled and, count it a great privilege when I get invited to lead chapel or speak to small groups or address a class. It is both a grand privilege and supreme responsibility to share the words of life to these students. Grant it, I'm not always as eloquent and pristine in my presentation of encouragement or love or rebuke as I'd hope to be. However, I believe that God has given me this "gift of gab" for this very purpose. I cherish the ministry God has seen fit to allow me participation in and would not trade it for the world. I mean, hey, I love to talk and that's just what I get to do on a daily basis.

However, as of late I have found that this love of talking, this "gift of gab", can become quite tyrannical if I do not, by God's Spirit, keep it in check. You see, not every situation calls for my input or opinion. Not every arena needs or even allows for my waxing excellent on some great concept or dynamic truth. There are just some instances when any words that I might conjure up would fall far short any self imposed goal secretly set upon them. It is in these situations that I find myself at war with my own tyrannical mind and tongue.

Certainly Proverbs 11:14 says, "Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety." This is an instructive statement giving not only opportunity but permission to impart guidance and wise counsel. One of the most helpful and promising ways of doing this is... you guessed it, through words, conversation and verbal instruction. Yet, we also know, via the life of Job, that it is not always the words, conversation and instruction of man that a person needs most - often it's God's. This is not only wise but necessary. Ultimately, it is the counsel of God that will heal, empower, preserve and sustain. This is not something that I don't know, but something that I believe with all my heart, mind and soul. The hard part about this is that I always feel like I'm the instrument God is going to use to play His symphonic melody to the people I encounter. Sometimes, though, it's my role to just listen.

It is in those moments that I realize that God is working in spite of me. Even as I fight with my own tyrannical "gift of gab" and suppress it as the enemy in this circumstance, I find God beautifully and artfully speaking into peoples' lives. He is active even when I am not. Though He has gifted me to speak, He does not always want me to do so - sometimes I have to just listen and let Him do His thing.

So, to those of you whom I've counseled lately, God is working. Though I may not have had the most profound wisdom to share with you, God is working. When you feel alone and it seems like the walls are closing in and you need someone to talk to, God is there. James 4:8a says, "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you." Go to Him. Let He who has the supreme "gift of gab" speak to your weary hearts and bear you along in whatever trouble you are facing.

For His Kingdom...