The Word constantly tells us to build people up, not tear them down. And yet we find ourselves in a world that says it's okay to destroy someone to further yourself. The world says Go aheah, send that text. It's okay to tell her what you really think. Gossip is just what girls do. They will never know what you said so why should it matter? What we fail to realize is that our words are spoken into eternity. What we fail to realize is just how damaging words can be. What we fail to realize is that when we gossip, when we exclude people because they don't fit our mold of cool, when we are "just being honest", we're tearing down people and we're tearing down the church.
At youth group Wednesday, we talked about how quick we are to cast stones, when in reality God should be the one casting stones at us. But as with the woman caught in adultry and brought before Jesus, we've been pardoned. We've been forgiven. We've been accepted and loved in spite of who we've been.
Why can't we extend that same grace to others?
My youth pastor had a really powerful visual. He took a ceiling tile and sat it up on a chair. Then he began to throw rocks at it. The first one was gossip. It left a nasty dent. Condemnation. A holier-than-thou attitude. Rejection. All the while, these rocks are absolutely destroying the ceiling tile. With each blow it got weaker, until finally it split into pieces. And not just easy to clean up chunks. Tiny pieces were everywhere. It was too broken to ever hope to be put back together. That ceiling tile represented a person. The rocks are the judgements hurled at it by people who claim to know God's heart. But if we as the church really knew God's heart, we'd know that He wants NO ONE to be treated like that.
And yet how quickly I let myself gossip! How quickly I look through these human eyes at someone instead of seeing him or her as God does. My heart broke with this realization. My friends know I'm a brutally honest person. But how much of my honesty seeks to build? How much is self-driven? Yes, I can tell the truth, but am I telling it in love?
We as the church are here to show the world that God desires so much more for us than what we settle for. We're here to show the world that God loves people for who they are. And yet our actions and words break them down. I think it's time I cast aside my crown. It's time I set aside this holier-than-thou/I-have-a-right-to-say-it attitude. It's time to humble myself. It's time to see people as God sees them. No, I won't be fixed overnight, but I'm not going to settle for less than what God is calling me to.
And what if the church as a whole embraced her call? What if we built each other up? What if we stood on the foundation Jesus laid for us and did this really revolutionary thing called loving our neighbors as ourselves? What would this world be like???
Jesus, forgive me for all the times I've clung to a crown and cast stones. Change my heart. Help me to see with Your eyes. And may my words and actions build up Your body, not tear it down.
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