This has been a  soul-searching week that is only half over.  I have found that through the practice of learning and self-reflection that is part of the college program I am enrolled in — I have lived a very sheltered life when it comes to the depravity of the human soul.   Yesterday I observed the proceedings in a criminal courtroom.  I have been to traffic court and I’ve served on jury duty, but I have never been this up close and personal to the ways in which the mind and soul can be so tormented.

I came home, opened my bible for a few moments of refreshment, and this is the verse that leapt off the pages before me.

Matthew 5:21-22 (MSG)

“You’re familiar with the command to the ancients, ‘Do not murder.’ I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ’stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill.”

We may believe that murder is the death of another human being by our own hands, or the hands of another.  The person murdered no longer takes in a breath and walks the face of this earth.  However, based on what I read in Matthew yesterday, it doesn’t appear that God sees this as the only description for murder.

This got me thinking…

My husband is my brother, and I am his sister. 

I am perfectly capable of stabbing with the sharpest dagger… my tongue.

You may believe you are incapable of murder.  I challenge you to do a reassessment.