A rebuttal of Ch. 14 of Your Best Life Now

Chapter 13: The Power in Your Words
Rebuttal

Joel opens with an illustration drawn from baseball. Jose Lima, a pitcher for the Astros, was uncharacteristically upset because the left field fence in their new ballpark was significantly closer to that in their old one. The significance of this lies in that right- handed batters tend to hit toward left field, and this makes it harder on the pitcher. Joel blames the fact that Jose’s performance as a pitcher plummeted the next season is because when he first stepped onto the pitcher’s mound, he said, “I’ll never be able to pitch here.” This is to a large extent unverifiable.

Joel has gone from “we think it, therefore it is manifest” to “we say it, therefore it is manifest.” While he may be relatively close to the mark on both counts, the sole act of thinking or speaking, contrary to what Joel would have us believe, is not enough to influence or bring about events. While it is by no means in question that words have power, as is stated repeatedly in the Bible, the manner and magnitude of power is here in question. Joel bemoans the tragedy of those who call themselves names. He claims that these people are “paving the way for failure.” As we’ve said before in previous chapters, there is an extent to which consistent negative thinking will drag you down. To hear Joel say it, however, would make you thing that saying aloud, “I’m an idiot” would actually lower your I.Q. by five points. To support his point, Joel cites James 3:4, which reads, “Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.” I’ll add the next verse, so the illustration will make more sense: “Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it also makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.” Joel is, as per usual, not taking into account what the author intended his writing to mean to its original audience, as well as the context of the scripture. What James is saying in his letter is that the tongue is capable of tearing down people; with only a few words hearts can be broken, and friendships ruined. Even on a less drastic scale, James says just six verses after the one that Joel cites, “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.” In essence, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

Joel goes on to miss the point of James 3:4 even more by saying that when James is comparing the tongue to the rudder of a ship, he is saying that the tongue plays a significant role in determining the direction of your life. In the same paragraph, James also compares the tongue to a spark that is capable of setting an entire forest ablaze. What conclusion are we to draw from this? The extent of James’s rudder metaphor is that both the tongue and rudder are small in comparison to that which they are a part of, yet they have a significant amount of control.

What Joel says next is one of the most ridiculous and laughable things he’s said so far. He claims that he once “heard about a doctor who understood the power of words. One prescription he gave to all his patients was for them to say at least once every hour, ‘I’m getting better and better every day, in every way.’ The doctor’s patients experienced amazing results, much better than the patients treated by many of his colleagues.” Not surprisingly, Joel gives no reference or other indicator as to who this doctor that he “heard about” is. This is a totally unverifiable claim, and it employs correlation-causation reasoning. In other words, what the story is saying is that because A and B have something to do with each other, A caused B. This is a flawed argument. Joel’s story is flimsy in its supporting detail and will not hold up to the least bit of scrutiny. I wonder if this “prescription” would have any effect on terminal cancer patients? The only doctor that I can think of who would give a prescription like this is Dr. Phil. But that reminds me, I once heard of a lawyer who told all his clients to say each morning, “I don’t want to go to jail” and he never lost a single case! Yeah, right.

Joel builds on the point made by his aforementioned story. He says that if we repeat aloud something to ourselves “often enough, with enthusiasm and passion, before long your subconscious mind begins to act on what you are saying, doing whatever is necessary to bring those thoughts and words to pass.” Again, he gives no reference to support this statement; no study, expert, or other work is provided as a source. As a remedy far those of us struggling with low self-esteem, Joel suggests looking in the mirror each morning and saying, “I am valuable. I am loved. God has a great plan for my life. I have favor wherever I go. God’s blessings are chasing me down and overtaking me. Everything I touch prospers and succeeds. I’m excited about my future!” This mantra starts out fine, but quickly becomes Joel’s patent version of ridiculous and even egotistic. “Everything I touch prospers and succeeds.” Where do you get that? A lot of Joel’s mantra has been covered in previous chapters, and it bears mentioning that there is nothing wrong with being excited about one’s future, but saying that to yourself repeatedly won’t alter the course of events.

Further on in the chapter, Joel tells us to “guard what we say,” and that if we’re “murmuring, complaining, ant talking about how bad life is treating you, you’re going to live in a pretty miserable, depressing world.” What he’s saying here is true. However, when Joel claims that “God wants us to use our words to change our negative situations” he is straying from the truth. He also paraphrases a well known saying: “Don’t talk about the problem, talk about the solution.” But how can one find the solution unless one first analyzes the problem?

The next paragraph starts off with “The Bible clearly tells us,” so you know it’s going to be a good one. Joel claims that what is being clearly told is that we are to “speak to our mountains.” Joel uses Mark 20:23, “‘I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, “Go, throw yourself into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart but believes what he says will happen, it will be done for him.’” Joel is drawing a comparison between the mountain that Jesus is referring to and our own personal problems. Speaking of problems, there are several that come with this proposed correlation. First of all, in the preceding verse Jesus tells us to “Have faith” and in the following verse, Jesus says that “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” This passage is clearly about asking and receiving. Second, there is nothing in the language that is used here to suggest that Jesus is speaking figuratively. You’ll notice he said “this mountain,” not “your mountains.” Thirdly, nowhere else does Jesus use mountains as a metaphor for personal problems, nor are they used as such elsewhere in the Bible. On the contrary, Psalms frequently use mountains as a place of refuge (Psalm 1:11, 30:7, et. al.).

Joel tries to bring further support for this argument by citing Joel 3:10, in his own special version: “Let the weak say I’m strong. Let the oppressed say I’m free. Let the sick say I’m healed. Let the poor say I’m well off.” I don’t know what Bible Joe’s reading; according to other versions only a quarter of Joel’s translation is accurate. In the NIV it reads, “Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weakling say, ‘I am strong!’” This is a call to arms for the last battle, and “Armageddon demands all possible weapons and warriors… Even the weak must volunteer for military service” (The Interpreter’s Bible).

Joel next uses the story of David and Goliath. He tells us that David succeeded because he “changed his whole atmosphere through the words that came out of his mouth.” The core of this line of thinking is that David destroyed Goliath not with help from God, but of his own power and ability, simply by saying aloud that he could. Joel says we should take note of the pre-giant slaying trash talk between David and Goliath, pointing out that David spoke aloud his feelings, and that doing so made all the difference. I can picture David sitting on an easy chair on the edge of the battlefield, saying, “All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give all of you into our hands” as he does in 1 Samuel 17: 47, and Goliath suddenly having a heart attack. We should take note that, following this line of thinking, a mute person would be helpless in this situation regardless of divine intervention.

In the next paragraph, Joel tells us that there’s a “miracle in your mouth,” and promises an example in the next chapter. While some might find this to provide a cliffhanger effect, it seems very anticlimactic to me. Taking the contents of this chapter together with the hermeneutical skills of its author, one might believe that Joel Osteen firmly believes in casting magical spells.