Unnecessary chatter
Pilots will tell you that the most crucial and dangerous times in air travel are at takeoff and landing. Those are the times with the greatest room for human error in flight and the least amount of airspace for correcting mistakes. To ensure safety during these crucial flight windows and to keep air-traffic madness manageable the FAA has strict guidelines on what can and can’t be said between pilots and controllers. The basic message is all business and no unnecessary chatter.
Paul acts as a sort of pastoral head of the FAA saying: “Stop wrangling over words and your profaned chatter. For these arguments don’t help anyone, in fact, they ruin everyone who listens to them” (2 Tim. 2:14-16). In fact, Paul labels stupid and senseless controversies as “gangrene” (vs. 17) that is, tissue decay and death to the body. And James says that the “tongue is like a spark that sets a person’s entire life on fire with flames that come from hell itself” (James 3:6).
There are many people who have never set fire to a man tied to a stake, but there are people, without number who assassinate friends, neighbors and acquaintances by untruths, half truths, tale-bearing, vicious and evil words, with a sneer from the lips or a shrug of the shoulders. Insensitive comments, thoughts that should have remained thoughts and opinions carelessly expressed are like a hand grenade tossed into a crowd or a little spark that kindles a forest fire.
Once upon time a woman repeated a tale on another woman. It brought that other woman misery and agony. It was found later that the tale was not true. The woman who scattered it about went to a sage and said: “What shall I do?”
The sage said: “Take a pillow of feathers and scatter them over the town.” So, she took a pillow of feathers and just scattered them up-and-down the streets of the town, and then came back to the sage and said, “Now, what shall I do?” And the sage said, “Go gather them all up again.”
She replied: “They are gone to the wind; I could never do such a thing.”
He replied: “Nor can you ever gather back all of those words that you’ve said.”
Words are powerful! When we say: “I love you,” or “I care about you and will help you” we can give another person new life, new hope, new courage. When we say: “I hate you” in one form or another we can destroy another.
At times pilots and controllers flirt with the limits of the FAA’s no unnecessary chatter rules. For example: Tower: “Delta 351, you have traffic at 10 o’clock, 6 miles! Delta 351: “Give us another hint! We have digital watches!” As a result of conversations like these, pilots and controllers have been suspended or fired.
There are certain times to shut up and keep it simple and that is a good lesson for cockpits, congregations, corporate tables and coffee tables. Paul reminds us to “Stop wrangling over words. For these arguments don’t help anyone, in fact, they ruin everyone who listens to them and leads people farther from God” (2 Tim. 2:14-16). In other words, watch the way you chatter!