The Naysayer

By Dr. Doug Ford, Production Animal Consultation, & Dr. Greg Quakenbush, Geissler Corp.

Every other Thursday, I pack up my ultrasound and head east for my 4:30 a.m. one-hour drive to Yuma Dairy. Yuma Dairy was my first experience with being a “dairy vet”, and I am going on 38 years of service. On this particular morning, the temperature was 30 degrees with overcast skies and dry roads. As I become older, slick roads and stormy weather creates more concern than when I was 25 years old. As I turned left onto the main two-lane highway, off in the distance was a bright orange screen with flashing caution lights. As I drew closer, parked on the side of the road was a portable message screen. In big, bold letters, the message read: Use Extreme Caution, Slippery Dangerous Road Conditions Ahead.

Naturally, I did a double take, pulled the cinch tighter on my seat belt, and hunkered down for what would appear to be more like a two-hour drive. Ten miles down the road all was good, 20 miles nothing, and 35 miles smooth sailing. The next thing I knew, I was buying health food at the local donut shop. My day was great, and the return trip was uneventful.

On the drive home, I thought about the power of words. The warning sign that morning added unnecessary stress and changed the course of my attitude for part of the day. As it turns out, the message was untrue and my concerns were totally unfounded. This experience parallels many events over the years in my personal and professional life.

One not-so-fond memory occurred when I was a senior in high school. Each student was required to meet with the college and careers counselor to guide the course of their future after graduation. Looking back, my meeting was intimidating and very impersonal. My so-called counselor’s first and foremost question was, “Mr. Ford, what are you going to do after graduation?” Mr. McQ wasn’t ready for my abrupt reply. I looked him straight in the eye and said, “I’m going to CSU to study veterinary medicine.” He immediately began to stutter and stammer, fidgeting with the manila folder on his lap while adjusting his posture in his uncomfortable wooden chair. How in that moment could I have known that this man, a counselor and supposed example of wisdom to young, developing minds, was about to destroy me with his words. He began coldly and without conscience to recite to me all the reasons I would never achieve my goal, explaining that sometimes without proper guidance we set our bar too high. The reality was, in his mind I was unqualified, and my aptitude scores confirmed the obvious. My standardized testing profile indicated that I had gifted hands, I loved animals and being outdoors, and I was very detail oriented. These traits in a nutshell qualified me to be a jeweler, game warden, forest ranger, gunsmith, or an assembly line worker, certainly not a veterinarian!

In the time it took for the second hand on the clock to make one round, this man single-handedly and completely destroyed every part of my being. My mind, my heart, my soul, my confidence, my self-esteem and will. His words literally reduced me to ashes in a little more than a heartbeat. In that moment, I retreated to the undertow of defeat where I remained for many years. I had an invisible hole in my heart. I became the walking wounded. It took years to rebuild the carnage he created in the blink of an eye, with no accountability or thought. How many other fertile, talented minds had been affected by his reckless lack of wisdom and mentorship?

I have since learned that naysayers are part of life. Someone or something will frequently be there to bring you down. The thing I missed for many years was the fact that the Heavenly Father knew how my story ended. The Bible says we are created in the image of a perfect God and if HE is for you, who can be against you? If I had only known these fundamental Biblical principles years ago. In the end what I saw as a setback and major defeat was the doorway to great success, peace, joy, and victory. Through Christ and His word, I have learned about true healing of emotional scars, compassion, forgiveness, grace, and servitude. I have learned that the power of life and death are truly in the tongue and to guard my heart and guard my words. Satan came to kill, steal, and destroy, but Christ came to give abundant life. (John 10:10)

Lessons learned:

• Pursue the qualified, not merely the available.

• Choose worthy and capable mentors.

• No relationship is insignificant.

• Friendship or association with the wrong person can destroy you forever.

• Worthy relationships increase your worth.

• Satan will use the words of others to undermine, discourage, and destroy you. He has been a liar from the beginning.

• People who build you up with words of life are a gift from God. Recognize them as such. Discern worthy relationships!

Digging Deeper

No honest examination of the potential impact of words and speech would be complete without seeking the wisdom and truth found in the Bible. A quick internet search on this theme immediately retrieves over 100 individual Bible verses. Another source notes that one out of every six verses in Proverbs is devoted to the tongue, speech, and our words. Who knew that one’s words and speech were such a huge influence over our lives and the lives of others?

Given all the scriptural references, there is one verse that seems to stand out and succinctly portray what is at stake: Proverbs 18:21 “Death and life are in the power of the tongue...”.

Power of the tongue? Life and death? This seems a bit overstated or extreme. Aren’t we just talking about “words”?

• Proverbs 15:4 (NLT) Gentle words are a tree of life; a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.

• Proverbs 12:18 (ESV) There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

• James 1:26 (ESV) If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.

Probably the greatest example of the power of words is found in Genesis where God spoke the universe into existence. While this is hard to get your head around, consider that we too, as mere mortals, have the ability to create worlds by our words. The worlds created by our words are found in marriages, families, the workplace, and so forth. What marriage or family does not thrive when the spoken environment is one of encouragement, support, joy, and forgiveness? Conversely, if a spouse, parent, or boss creates an environment of sarcasm, bitterness, fault finding, or criticism, the result may make some long for death as a way to escape the verbal hell.

What world is currently being created by words and venomous tongues in our contemporary cultural environment?

Given the two choices of “death” or “life” as noted in Proverbs 18:21, which way do you perceive we are rapidly moving as a nation? It seems like a dark cloud is descending upon us as cities like New York, Baltimore, Seattle, Minneapolis, Portland, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Detroit, and Denver are moving away from unity and civility. Anarchy and lawlessness seem to be the preferred result where speech and words are crafted for such an outcome. All of this verbal rhetoric is magnified, multiplied, and passed around at lightning speed via the vicious viral social media of the 21st century.

In retrospect, we seem to have drifted far, far away from the picture of reality painted by Dr. Brewster Higley. In the early 1870s, Dr. Higley (who lived in Smith County, Kansas) wrote the lyrics for what some have called the unofficial anthem of the American West, “Home on the Range”. His famous perspective for the world he lived in at the time observed that “Seldom was heard a discouraging word.” This sounds somewhat corny to our ears today. However, if we examine this lyric in a bit more detail, we will see that he cleverly used a double-negative expression with his words. Looking at his lyrics from this slightly different angle we see that at his home on the Kansas prairie, encouraging words were often heard. It becomes easy to see that this special place is one that we all would like to call “home”.

If there is any doubt remaining regarding the power of our words or the ability of the tongue to cause hurt and damage, the Book of James clearly spells it out.

James 3:6-10 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

So, choose words that give life, both for others and for yourself. There is a lot to choose from in this category but none more important, personally life changing or eternally impactful than what Paul presented to the group at Rome:

Romans 10:9 (ESV) because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.