Lent 2017-Week 5

I'd like to think I don't gossip or, God forbid, slander. I'd like to think. When I first started working at Covenant House a coworker and I used to time our breaks together and we'd stand outside in this little door frame and spout negative stuff about anyone and everyone, staff and youth alike--complaints mostly, but also opinions, misgivings, and yes, gossip. Honestly, the Christian in me knew this was wrong and a ruin to my testimony. So it was with great relief when this person moved on and I remained=no one with whom to tear down my Cov family...for the most part. 

For some reason this week the word "whisper" crossed my devotional path. In the Greek it means, "To roll to pieces, slander". Yikes! I picture a huge rolling pin crushing something beneath it--a reputation, a high standing, character...Proverbs 16:28 says, "A froward man soweth strife; and a whisperer separateth chief friends". There is also a reference to "whisperers" in Romans 1:29, the word meaning,"a secret calumniator (I had to look this up)="to utter malicious false statements, to injure the reputation of by calumny" (great SAT word!)

Is one person's opinion about someone someone else's slander? Who's to say? But does it "benefit those who listen?" Is it Godly? Likely not...

Years ago I was at an event. I was around several co-workers when a guest arrived. I noted said guest in my mind, and then turned to one of my co-workers and whispered a statement about said guest...one that was not flattering. The look on my co-worker's face said it all. What I had said had crossed the line. It was inappropriate, unnecessary, and, in a moment, damaged MY reputation as a believer. . It haunted my the whole night, to the point where I pulled the co-worker aside and apologized for making the statement. Shame over speaking without thinking consumed me and made for a very humiliating 48 hours as I beat myself up for expressing a thought that didn't need to be expressed...all in a whisper.

As I read through the devotional, I thought about my "whispers", during meetings, the "whispers" via head nods, facial expressions, or winks to co-workers in meetings, and what that conveys...and I felt some type of way about it all. NOT GOOD! "Whispers" might seem more quiet, less obvious than outright declarations of slander...but they still speak volumes. As I enter Holy Week, my favorite of all weeks, may I be more sensitive to my propensity for whispering...and stay mute.