Abraham Lincoln and the Judgment

Abraham Lincoln said something during the Gettysburg Address that simply wasn’t true.

“The world will little note,” he proclaimed, “nor long remember, what we say here….” His point was well taken. It was the sacrifice of those who died that made that parcel of ground significant, not a speech by the president.  It’s just that he was wrong: practically everybody remembers what he said at Gettysburg. Every year, countless thousand school children don construction paper stove-pipe hats and stick-on beards, and recite the opening words to adoring parents gathered in school gymnasiums: “Fourscore and seven years ago….” 

I guess you just never know which of your words, which of your actions, will live on forever. What a person assumes is a fleeting, insignificant moment, can prove to be a game-changer. In the case of Lincoln, it was a good thing.  The speech has become a national treasure. But with most of what slips out of our mouths . . . well, it’s not likely school children will be repeating it any time soon.  And even if the people around you don’t notice what went down, heaven most certainly does. 

“But I say to you,” Jesus once warned the Pharisees, “that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”  (Matthew 12:36,37)

Ouch.  It’s a good reminder to choose our words carefully and place them well.