Did you hear?!

“The words of a gossip are like tasty bits of food. People like to gobble them up.” Proverbs 18:8

These words were spoken more than 2800 years ago, however they do sound quite contemporary, don’t you think? How many times have you heard yourself saying these words: “Did you hear?”, “Do you know about…”, “You won’t believe what … just did!” Why is gossip like “tasty bids of food”?

I could try to explain this subject with thousands of words using psychological, and sociological terms but the truth is that gossip is nothing more than one of the tools of the devil against us.

Now, you, my non-christian friend, might be thinking “OK, here we go again with this God related stuff”. I ask you to have a little patience and read this closely. What I want to share with you today comes from personal experience.

I grew up with an awesome group of friends from my church. We were good friends and used to hang out often and have a lot of fun together. By the time we reached 11-12 years old, our interest in the opposite sex began to grow, as every normal human being.  Gossip started in a very subtle manner… “Did you hear about …? I heard he got a new video-game.”, “Did you see … and … talking? I think they like each other!”, “No way! What happened to him?”, Don’t you think they would be the perfect couple?” It was an innocent conversation. Or was it? Those little rumors only got worse as time passed by… “Did you hear that … and … were making out?”, “I think she TOTALLY hates you!”, “I heard that … is not a virgin anymore.”, “So and so told me that … is pregnant.”

By that time sub-groups had already formed inside the group. People who used to be best friends wouldn’t talk to each other anymore. Some of them were seriously hurt and left the church altogether. Others began to counter-attack with more gossip and rumors. The results were catastrophic. Our group became closed to people from the outside and were constantly gathering to “talk” and share stuff so that other people could “pray about it”. Many people came and left our church and are still lost to this day because of our behavior. Many people were deeply hurt, including me and still struggle with lack of trust and difficulty to associate with other people around them. Very young lives were ruined and strong friendships, destroyed. And it all started with three simple words: “Did you hear?”.

My friends, I would like to ask you two simple questions: What do you gain with gossip? How has your life improved through gossip? I had to go through tough times to realize that it is good for nothing and my intent with these words is to save you some pain. If you are a Christian, you probably know that the devil wants to destroy our lives in every aspect, including our relationships. He loves to see relationships being torn apart. He knows that we are stronger together and will do anything to separate us. If you’re not a Christian, well, now you know!

I would like to ask you, no, I beg of you: Please don’t give room to gossip in your life. Don’t let it do to you what it did to me and my friends. We’re recovering now and learning to trust each other but the time we lost together due to gossip will never be returned and the scars we got from that will only disappear with the help of God.

“Do not go about spreading slander among your people. Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life. I am the LORD.” Leviticus 19:16

Well, I think that’s all about that, for now. I would like to talk a little bit more about it further down the road. If you’re interested, stay tuned! Post your comments, opinions and personal experiences. I’d love to hear from you. If you don’t want to share with everybody… send me an e-mail. I promise to keep it to myself and pray for it ALONE on my devotional time.

Thank you for your time! Have and awesome day!

Thiago Oliveira

“A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy man keeps a secret.” Proverbs 11:13

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” Matthew 7:1

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