Tongue Wagging

Solomon once wrote, "Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down" (Prov 26:20).  It is that little wiggling thing, often hiding behind a disarming smile or camouflaged in tones of concern but sharper than a serpent's tooth, that causes so much damage.

James, the brother of Jesus, warns about this wagging little muscle that has so much potential for destruction: "Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.  The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell" (Js 3:5-6).

We carry tales, some true, some not - rarely investigated or troubled by going to the source to find out what is real and how one could help or make a difference in the matter - the art of gossiping is as one of it's dictionary definitions puts it: "a wagging of the tongue."

While it may attack and even destroy the reputation of  its object, it is really a commentary on the gossiper himself: "Gossip is a sort of smoke that comes from the dirty tobacco-pipes of those that diffsse it; it proves nothing but the bad taste of the smoker (George Eliot).

This smoke of  the gossiper, by the way, rises up to the nostrils of God himself to whom it is a stench that he labels a sin of the highest caliber: "...God gave them over to a depraved mind...filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, …" (Rom 1:28-30), the Spirit continues but you get the picture.

Before you listen to that next juicy bit of gossip or launch that ship yourself, consider the truth about you that is being revealed, the offense against another child of God being committed and the disgust of the Father for such a vile act.  Jus' Sayn.