So, how do you like my new blog page? Pretty neat eh!? I appreciate Geoff finding this avenue for me because it allows me to do my own posting and what not which means I don't have to bug him, accept for some troubleshooting now and then most likely.
It will also allow me, for that reason, to post more often I hope.
Today I wanted to share with you an article that Karen Casey Arneson wrote. I came across it last week and I was wondering if you might want to give it a read and let me know what you think. For my part, I think in the process of her own 'confession' she has highlighted a key area of our lives where we often let sin go - what we say about others when they aren't around to hear it! I think she has written an amazing little piece.
The article is called 'Cannibals in Christendom' and here is the link. Let me know what you think.
Steve
Although I never thought of Christians as being Cannibals I have to admit that word seems very appropriate. I realize that we all talk about others and that it is a sin and can be very damaging, but I wonder sometimes if we are “Cannibals” because we are so hungry for knowledge of one another. A deep rooted need for fellowship that has been perverted, for surely negative knowledge of a person is better than no knowledge at all.
ReplyDeleteFor years our ancestors interacted with one another on such a close and personal level that they knew basically everything about one another good or bad and accepted them anyway as they worked for the common good. Today we mostly work for our own good or perhaps that of a small group and are left feeling the hunger of needing to know and be known. So we participate in Drive Thru Cannibalism. Grabbing a bite here and there not enough to really satisfy us but enough to keep us going until the next fast food conversation comes along.
I know that sounds like a pretty quirky slant on gossip but I’ve come to believe that most people don’t gossip to cause pain but instead to ease some of their own sense of isolation. That is why our relationship with Christ is even more important now than ever, because without Him to fill that need to be known and without his word to satisfy the hunger that consumes us we feed on the ones around us that we call our “brothers and sisters in Christ”. May God strengthen our resolve to take back our need of fellowship and filter it through his loving grace.
I hadn’t thought of that Carolyn but as I read your words I found myself agreeing with you. I know you’re not trying to justify gossip but it does help to understand, at least in part, why we are so prone to it. For sure, a lot of it is simply sin on our part but a lot of it does to likely point to a genuine need we have. Isn’t that the way with all sin though, that we seek to meet a God given need that is totally legitimate in ways that God never intended.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.