Have you heard...?

Good morning! I hope you had a great weekend and that you are off and running this morning.

This past weekend my family and I relocated our household to a new place of residence. We are blessed to have so many who willingly gave of their time and muscles to help us undertake this effort. So with sore muscles and joints I bring you this morning’s encouragement.

I want to begin by identifying a few of the most dangerous places in America:

• The office water cooler
• The school playground
• The women’s restroom
• The men’s locker room
• The office break room
• Corner gatherings at the church house

Do you know what these places have in common? What makes them so dangerous? Each of these places has historically been breeding grounds for gossip. We’ve all seen it happen before our very eyes…in fact most of us have been sucked into its grasp at one point or another.

Gossip often disguises itself under good and noble intentions with such titles as “information”, “thought I would let you know”, or “did you hear?” At the heart of gossip is a selfish desire to judge others according to our standards or to place ourselves in a position of knowing another’s business.

The problem with gossip is the fact that human communication is not all that reliable. You remember your grade school days when you played the gossip game don’t you? One student would tell the next student a secret and that student would relay that message to the next student. By the time the message had gotten to the end of the class, it was always totally different than how it began. We listen and speak through our own filter of understanding so our communications are never 100% objective.

Consider what the Bible says about gossip:

Proverbs 11:13 (NLT)

A gossip goes around revealing secrets, but those who are trustworthy can keep a confidence.

Gossip is like identity theft. It can damage a person’s reputation, career, relationship and even their faith for years to come with little hope for repairing the damage to their name.

The best of friends are those who can hold strict confidences. We need to be very discerning in what we share and to whom we share it with. Some things simply do not need to be shared. Their disclosure benefits no one and in the end the harm done far outweighs any gain that may be achieved.

This week you may have an opportunity to be apart of the gossip in the workplace, school yard or even the church house. I want to challenge you to break the cycle. Remove yourself and make the truth your standard for living.

Until next Monday, may God’s richest blessings be yours this week.

Carl