Gossip wounds deeply. It is akin to assassination.
Like a murdering of another. Certainly, anti-loving.
I have done it. I am ashamed.
I have been convicted. I have repented.
I have been gossiped about. Oh, the pain.
On occasion, no big deal. Consider the source.
Other times like a blow to the gut. No wind returns for a very long time.
Gossip containing an element of truth, bad enough.
Gossip that has no substance, cuts even deeper.
Particularly when by those you know and trusted:
Who started, repeated, or believed it.
Worse, yet, to hear, “I am staying out of it”. Then, to learn,
The gossip started months ago. Stayed out of it!? Hardly.
Stirred up conflict. Roiling. Betrayed by one loved.
Kindles flames. Conflagration. Like arson to the soul.
Choice morsels to the gossiper. Poison to the victim.
Harms both: The one betrayed and the betrayer.
Absent of love.
I, too, have been there: The betrayer and the betrayed.
Stop the assaulting. Conviction! Oh, to be like Jesus.
To give a cup of cold water: Is to do unto Jesus.
To gossip: is to do unto Jesus.
Gossip: never benign. Sinful malign.
Richard L. Brewer
02/14/2018

Published by sparedbygrace@yahoo.com
I am Richard Brewer—a Christ-follower, psychologist, husband, father, grandfather (Papa) sometimes writer, and lifelong student of people.
For much of my professional life, I've had the privilege of sitting with people as they wrestle with some of life's most difficult questions—questions about faith, suffering, grief, relationships, identity, failure, hope, and what it means to live well.
Those conversations have changed the way I see people and the way I understand my own faith. They have taught me that life is rarely as simple as our explanations of it, that people are almost always more complicated than they appear, and that sometimes the wisest response to a difficult question is to empathize and to keep asking better questions.
I am a committed Christ-follower, but I am not interested in pretending that Christianity eliminates mystery or that faith means having an answer for everything. Faith invites us to pursue truth honestly, to think deeply, to acknowledge what we do not know, and ultimately to trust the God we do know.
Mediocre Meanderings is where I explore some of those questions.
I write about faith and psychology, grief and suffering, leadership and relationships, aging and ordinary life—and occasionally whatever else catches my attention along the way.
I do not write from the perspective of someone who has figured life out. I write as someone who has lived enough of it to know that I have not.
These are my thoughts, questions, observations, and occasional attempts at wisdom. Take what is useful. Challenge what is not. And, if you would like, meander along with me.
View all posts by sparedbygrace@yahoo.com