Gossip: Like Prayer Requests, Only Juicier

Lately, I feel like I've been busier than a one-legged puppy dog running from the pound, but I look back and don't really see myself doing any more than normal. I always wondered why the older you get, the quicker time seems to fly. One of my more philosophical roommates came up with a good hypothesis for why this is. When a child is one year old, that's the only year he knows. Once he turns two, that one year is only half of his life now. At three, one year becomes a third of his life. A year has now become an ever shrinking fraction. Once you hit 50, it's only .02 of your life. It really wouldn't seem so long anymore. It's like driving. Here driving 6 miles is a long way. In the north woods of Wisconsin, that's a short trip. From here home, it's a 6 hour drive. For most people, that's way too long. After make the 18-22 hour hike from home to Northland over 30 times, VA to PA just doesn't seem that far anymore.

Heck, I just moved down here a few weeks ago... relatively. The past 5 1/2+ years translates into 67 months or approx 290 weeks. Out of the approx 1,499 weeks that I have been alive, I can understand why! (Just in case you were wondering, my life translates into 28 years, 9 months and 26 days. That is the same as 28.8215 years, which is also 345.8581 months, which is 10,519.8484 days, which is 252,476 hours, which is roughly 15,148,582 minutes. Or, in other words about 908,914,924 seconds. This could also be measured as about 1,090,697,909 heartbeats. I had a little help with http://www.alive.easyabout.com/. I figured it out on my own and was surprisingly accurate... but I wanted even more accurate)

Time is precious. Why do we waste so much of it?

James 4:14
You don't even know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are a bit of smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes.

Psalm 39:5
You, indeed, have made my days short in length,
and my life span as nothing in Your sight.
Yes, every mortal man is only a vapor.

Selah

Psalm 144:4
Man is like a breath;
his days are like a passing shadow.

Isaiah 40:6-8
A voice was saying, "Cry out!"
Another said, "What should I cry out?"
"All humanity is grass,
and all its goodness is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flowers fade
when the breath of the LORD blows on them;
indeed, the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flowers fade,
but the word of our God remains forever."

A old college friend recently wrote(in the context of a situation concerning a fallen Brother), "I've heard it said that the 'Christian Army' is the only army in the world that shoots its wounded."

It's amazing how much my eyes have been opened to what Grace is over the past several years. I don't actually exude grace in all my words and actions by any stretch of the imagination. I just know it when I see it... or the lack thereof. It's easy for me to pick on the fundamentalists because that's the group I'm coming out of. But there's no exempt group. But for the sake of example... There was a guy that used to teach a block class on criminal justice at Northland. He and I wouldn't see eye to eye on a lot of theological positions anymore. However, he and I got along great. He actually helped me out a lot in preparing for one of my missionary internships.He was the head of a organization preparing chaplains for prison ministries. He also claimed, for whatever reason, to be a teacher for the FBI academy.

This was a lie.

Once it came to light, he was arrested for impersonating an FBI agent and his testimony and ministry was damaged. I heard most of this through the grapevine. Recently, I researched it, with the help of a friend, so I could get the straight story (By the way, I have spoken with another mutual friend of ours and he has informed me that this man has been broken and has reaped much in consequences from his decisions). After reading an article I found on the subject, I read some of the other readers comments on the article. I was absolutely shocked. I admit I got a laugh out of irony of the situation at times. He was a very outspoken, over-spoken type of guy... a lot of people didn't like him for that. Despite the quirks about him, I liked him. However, at times even I joined in at poking fun at his issues. Looking back, I regret it. However, I never thought I would ever meet someone so brazen as to say some of the things I read in that reply section (and he is not the only man I've seen this happen to).

My mental image is somewhat Daniel-esque. It's that of a man with the ravaging temperament and teeth of a wounded lion. A broken and mangled body hangs lifeless in it's hands. Dark, crimson blood drips from it's razor sharp teeth. The slight flicker of a flame reflects off of a pair of darkened eyes. It's face if filled with exhilaration over it's most recent kill. A bit graphic?

Why a wounded lion? The animal and it's state have been carefully chosen. A lion will always seek out the weakest of it's prey. It will look for the young, the weak and the wounded. It will feed and live off of wounded. A lion when wounded will stalk the easiest prey possible, humans. Wounded lions have been known to ravage and terrorize tribes. Why the teeth? Man at his most depraved state is one who speaks with daggers and knives. Man verbally eviscerates his fellow man to build himself up. Why the eyes? A man who looks at life from this perspective is darkened in his thoughts. Why the flame? He is not only darkened, but is deceived by a lie straight from Hell. What is that lie? That my sin is any less heinous than yours. All this is done at the cost of someone else.

A more accurate picture may be one of a cannibal. Those already weak and wounded are now destroyed and devoured by their very own fellow man.

Should hidden sin be exposed? Sure. Should a brother be called on his sin if he refuses to recognize it's existence? It's the most loving thing to do! But, there's a huge difference between exposing and exploiting. It happens way too often. A "prayer list" becomes the tabloid and a "prayer chain" becomes the paparazzi. There's a total disregard for scriptural, loving confrontation.

Other than the obvious fact that it is built into the fallen nature of man, why does this happen? It's the very same reason millions of people read the National Enquirer or watch Jerry Springer and Judge Judy:

Seeing someone "worse" than them makes them feel better about their failures and eases their conscience about their own sin.

1 Peter 2:1 So rid yourselves of all wickedness, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander. Have I ever told you I hate chapter and verse divisions? The chapter division would tell me I can just start with So rid yourselves. But that word So begs me to look at the context. There's more to this than just 2:1...

By obedience to the truth, having purified yourselves for sincere love of the brothers, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again —not of perishable seed but of imperishable—through the living and enduring word of God. For

"All flesh is like grass,
and all its glory like a flower of the grass.
The grass withers, and the flower drops off,
but the word of the Lord endures forever."

And this is the word that was preached as the gospel to you.

So rid yourselves of all wickedness, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, desire the unadulterated spiritual milk, so that you may grow by it in [your] salvation, since you have tasted that the Lord is good. Coming to Him, a living stone—rejected by men but chosen and valuable to God— you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Suddenly, time and speech become closely woven together in the tapestry of the Gospel. Life is but a few, short heartbeats. There is no time in this life for deceit and slander! We are a vapor. We are fading like a blade of grass. But we have been saved by The Living Stone. We have been gloriously redeemed by the Unfading Gospel of GRACE! So let's live like it! Let us, being purified, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again... through the living and enduring word of God!