You Talk Funny

Karen Butler hasn’t been the same since she had oral surgery a year and a half ago. While the swelling and numbness didn’t last too long for the Newport, Oregon woman, an unexpected side effect has remained. Butler came out of anesthesia with a foreign accent. That’s right -- this native Oregonian now sounds like she grew up in the British Isles or Australia. Doctors have diagnosed her with a neurological condition known as “foreign accent syndrome.” It is quite rare, with only 60 recorded cases over the last 100 years. Normally, it is caused by strokes, but it has also been linked to migraines, head injuries, and multiple sclerosis. In Butler’s case, doctors are puzzled over what brought it on, since the normal factors don’t appear to be present. Regardless of the reason, oral surgery changed Karen Butler’s life. She no longer speaks like she once did.

When God operates on our hearts, our speech is expected to change. “But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices” (Colossians 3:8-9). “Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person” (Colossians 4:6). “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29). “...(A)nd there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks” (Ephesians 5:4). “...(F)rom the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way” (James 3:10).

May we all be afflicted with spiritual “foreign accent syndrome.” May the words we choose and the way we talk reveal us to be foreigners (Philippians 3:20).

God loves you!
Mike