CLC Sermons

Psalm 19:14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.

The Gossip Game

Have you ever played Chinese Whispers – in church? This is a game in which players sit in a circle. The first player whispers a statement in his neighbor’s ear. The neighbor then whispers it to the next player…and so on around the circle. The final player then calls out the message as he perceives it. Lo and behold! The original message in the telling has changed – often drastically!

The game shows how rumors get started, how truth gets distorted as it’s passed from mouth to mouth. As a game it’s amusing – but in life more is at stake.

It is said that the best way to spread news quickly is to disguise it as a “secret”. All of us love to share tidbits of information – it’s human nature. Fine – except it too often becomes mere gossip. That’s defined as “idle talk or writing, tattle”. We could gossip good news, but too often the game takes over and distortions set in. Negative gossip, the showing of others in a bad light, is especially popular – as evidenced by the high sales of the gutter press. Scandal is more interesting!

Sadly negative gossip can take root in God’s Church. It’s so easy to pass on “juicy tidbits” of information which inevitably have a depressing effect on many. And, of course, with the telling the substance changes so much that the truth is often somewhat twisted.

Prayer request or gossip? So many times I see gossip disguised as a prayer request.  We pass on  gossip in the form of asking people “to pray for the situation” and then proceed to gossip, gossip, gossip.  

Confession: Lord, help me to tame my tongue and to speak words that uplift and build others up. Help me to recognize gossip and to take a stand against it.

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