Gossipy Feathers on the Wind
A man grew jealous of his friend’s life, and since he was upset that his own life was falling apart, he devised a scheme to take the heat off of himself. He began to spread gossip about his friend all through the church and on Facebook. Hurtful, slanderous, lies aimed at hurting and ruining his friend’s reputation. Soon everyone was talking about the story. After a while he is convicted of his guilt and he confesses his sin to his friend, and asks for forgiveness.
His friend is willing to forgive him but first he hands him a down filled pillow and a knife, and says, “Take this pillow to the top of the highest building in town and release all the feathers into the wind, then come back to me.” Confused, the the man agrees to fulfil this strange task. When he returns to his friend and asks for his forgiveness, his friend hands him a pillow case and says, “Now go back and retrieve all the feathers and bring them back to me.” Stunned, the man says, ” That is impossible, the wind has carried the feathers all over town!” His friend says to him, “You are my brother, I love you, and I forgive you for your sin against me. But just remember that each one of those feathers represents someone who has heard your false gossip and has formed an opinion of me based on the gossip. How can I ever get all those feathers back? How can I ever repair that damage? How can you ever repair the trust that you have broken?”
It will be a long time, if ever, that that man can repair the broken trust. It will be a long time before he opens up to his friend again. Before you repeat a story, ask yourself, Is it true? Is it fair? Is it necessary? When you publicly embarrass someone, when you make up stories about someone, when you spread a story about someone – Jesus says that’s just like murder. Think about that for minute. Your words are powerful. They can be used to build up, or they can be used to tear down. Your gossipy, slanderous words are like feathers on the wind and bullets aimed at the heart.
God has seen fit to spend a lot of time dealing with sins of the tongue, like lying, gossip and slander, in the Bible. Even more than for sexual sin. The Bible says in James, “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.” Be careful.
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. ~ Eph 4:29
A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends. ~ Proverbs 16:28
There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers. ~ Proverbs 6:16-19
Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered. ~ Proverbs 11:13
Hello. First of all, I want to tell you how much I appreciate your blog. Your timely words and insightful musings are a breathe of fresh air.
I’m writing this in response to both this article above and an earlier post you did entitled “burying our wounded soldiers”.
I’d like to share a story of how gossip kills. About a year ago, I fell into a deep depression. I told only a few of my closest friends once I knew it was really bad and I knew they’d need to know why I wasn’t myself. I told them about suicidal thoughts I was having; I honestly thought it was normal to consider taking your own life, that just about everyone does at some point. I’ve struggled with this since my early teens.
But the admission didn’t stay behind closed doors. A church aquaintance, who I only met once or twice knew all about my most intimate secret and I was crushed. “Word gets around in a small community” was all she said.
The one place where I could take refuge had now become no-man’s land. The gossip threw me deeper into despair, because I had no way of knowing where all the feathers had flown. I became wary of everyone in the pews…Did they know? I didn’t go to church for a few sundays b/c I was so terrified.
Which only increased their judgements and gossip.
All I am saying…instead of judging a sister or brother in Christ who is struggling for her life, please help him or her to get out of the line of fire.
We can only crawl on our own for so long…
Thanks for sharing Ashleyraine.