a young reformed blog designed to edify

Great insight from Josh Patterson’s blog over at The Village Church:

[...] Our propensity for gossip certainly doesn’t stop with celebrities; it permeates our lives as well. Religious people share personal information about another as a prayer request with no consideration of whose information it is to share. Sometimes we simply fill the void of our conversations with information about other people rather than walking in the vulnerability of sharing our own lives. The social network scene of Facebook and Twitter only serve as instant vehicles for us to get information, share information and continue to feed the idol of information that so many of us bow down to.

Check your heart here. Why do you share what you share? Is it yours to share? Why do you feel a need to share it or listen to it? What is lacking in your own life that you have to fill it up with the news about another? Here’s an idea: shhhhh. Listen to your heart and find out why you crave to be in the know. Listen for why you have to be the first to share something. Do you feel more powerful? Why do you need to feel this way? What’s broken and lacking in you? Maybe you lack the courage to tell someone to stop sharing something you know you don’t need to be privy to. Maybe you lack the courage to share your own heart…about yourself.

It would do us some good to consider our words. They are powerful to bless and curse. They can build or destroy. They are viral and hard to get back, so listen more than you talk and feel empowered to not share what is not yours.