Someone asked me, a week or so back, why I am so fond of thebook/letter of James.  It's pretty simple really... the writer calls a spade a spade.  It is down to earth, practical, and definitely challenging.  And that, for me, is enough.

Today was James 3, and the challenge of 'guarding the tongue', especially in an era of instant messaging.  It was, as ever, as much a sermon to myself as to anyone else.  In a week when we have seen writ large some of the dangers of ill-conceived high-tech, high-speed, communicaitons, and of dishonesty and distortion, perhaps it was quite apposite.