Damaging Effects

1 Tim. 5:¹³ “They also learn to waste their time in going around from house to house; but even worse, they learn to be gossips and busybodies, talking of things they should not.”

Gossip is casual or unconstrained conversation about other people, typically involving details that are not confirmed and in many cases, lies. If you are in any position of authority, be aware that people will bring unsolicited gossip to you.

Take your stand against gossip. In God’s Favourite House for example, we have zero tolerance for gossip. We simply are not interested in what you have to say about what is happening in that person’s life.

Personally, I am not interested in gossip. I just do not want to know what you think about other people. Keep your “information” to yourself. You really should not put your nose in other people’s business. Mind your business and let them mind theirs. I encourage you to do The Journey. We have zero tolerance for gossip; we do not want gossip and we do not do gossip! People have a lot of things they are dealing with; but what gives you the right to comment on their struggles? Are you perfect, is your life perfect, and are your children perfect?

The story is told of an older pastor and a younger pastor. The younger pastor just moved into the city. I cannot tell if he had ulterior motives or not but he spread a lot of gossip about the older pastor. The gossip was so bad that the older pastor lost the church he had pastored for over a decade, lost his marriage – he lost everything. The problem with gossip is the people listening to it also are gossips. They do not bother finding out the truth.

Time passed, the man grew old and frail living alone. The younger pastor had also matured and felt really bad about what he had done. He went to apologise in an attempt to make things right. The older pastor took him to a hilltop where it was very windy and emptied a bag of feathers into the wind. The wind naturally carried the feathers in every direction. With his arms around the young pastor he said, “I forgave you even before you came to ask. Making things right would be like retrieving every feather back into the bag!” It was impossible. When he spread the gossip, it probably felt good but now he would have to live with the pain of the damage he had caused. Such things are typically irreversible.

Prayer [song]: Purify my heart, Let me be as gold and precious silver. Purify my heart, Let me be as gold, pure gold… Amen!