Ever received a cell phone call from someone and when you say hello all you hear is a bunch of talking or activity on the other end but no one responds to you? This happens when someone hits the call button on their mobile phone by accident and places a call to you without realizing it.

I get a lot of these.

Either people really, really want to call but never quite get around to it, or they have me on speed dial on whatever number on the key pad most often bumps into things.

Who knows?

But it has the potential to be quite embarrassing, as I’m sure you can imagine. I mean, think about it. What if you (like a lot of people) compartmentalize your life? What if you are not exactly who you are at church when you are, say, playing poker with the guys?

If that’s you, you might go to great lengths to have that poker face on in public. And not just the poker face, but the poker tongue too. A lot of people can barely control their tongue and when they are alone or with the right, wrong crowd, the real them comes out. They just really struggle controlling their tongue. Look what the Bible says about tongue control:

For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way.

 3 We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. 4 And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. 5 In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches.

   But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. 6 And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself.^[b]

 7 People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, 8 but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. 9 Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. 10 And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right! 11 Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water? 12 Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty spring. James 3:1-12

So controlling the tongue on your own is a lost cause anyway. Now…

Enter, Blackberry Backfire.

That’ll blow your cover every time.

I know a lot of folks who have sought out special locking software for their phones, spent hours with a technician to prevent this, or purchased a special holster for their phone that prevents Blackberry Backfire.

Oh, and obviously this doesn’t only happen with Blackberrys. It’s even been known to happen with iPhones. So everyone is vulnerable!

Muhahaha!

I know this good friend won’t mind me sharing this (We’ve laughed about it many times), but our student minister at the church is one of the leading blackberry backfire culprits. He used to call me accidentally about twice a week. But you know what’s sooooo cool? I never heard anything bad while saying hello 4,000 times and trying to get him to realize he’s accidentally called me.

I think I know why.

He’s gone to God to lock down his tongue rather than the technicians at Verizon.

Good choice. Last I heard, He’s still the only one who can tame that beast.