It seems as if people today have forgotten the power that lies behind their words. In the bible, God has a lot to say about the power of our words, especially their ability to build someone up or tear someone down. He said that our tongues have the power to bring life or the power to bring death. In our culture today and even the church today, we have allowed our speech to kill people’s dreams and to discourage them from being who God wants them to be.
In my life, the people I am tempted to gossip about are — obviously — the people I don’t get along with. Isn’t it ironic that those are the people who need the most love? It has taken me awhile to see that when God puts frustrating people in my life, its because He wants me to see the good in them and do my best to draw that good out. The honest truth is, is that there is no way on earth that my talking bad about the “irritating” neighbor girl up the street or the “annoyingly happy” girl at school is going to help them in their walk with God. In fact, it will do the exact opposite. Besides, the individuals who are the most “obnoxious” are generally the ones who are hurting the most. From my experience, when people have been deeply wounded or feel unloved, they act a certain way in hopes of getting the attention of someone who will love them. Instead of meeting that apparent need for love we ignore it and happily whisper to one another and share our most recent story about how annoying they are.
I think our biggest problem is that we don’t see others the way God sees them. Where we see annoying and frustrating, God sees brokenness and hurt that needs love, not gossip. It’s just like how God looks at me and although He knows all my failings and mistakes, He forgives them and looks past them to give me a destiny that I really don’t deserve. If we could see all those “annoying people” the way God see them, our hearts would brake for them and we would never even think of hurting them with our “observations.” Most likely we would also be very ashamed of what we had said and thought about them in the past. Everybody makes mistakes… so what! We don’t need to tell the whole world and make them out to be horrible people. We are who we are because God loves us and He has called us to share that love with everyone we meet.
It all comes down to this, we can use our words to help individuals fulfill their destiny or we can hinder them from reaching it. A practical example of this was last week at camp, me and a bunch of friends were waiting in line to go rock climbing. While we were waiting, my friend and I were watching this girl climb one of the walls. About half way up, she came to a difficult part and immediately she started saying “I can’t do it! I can’t do it!” My friend and I looked at each other and even though we had no idea who this girl was or what her name was, we started encouraging her: “You can do it!… your almost there!… you got this one!… I know you can do it!” She slipped three more times but in the end, she made it all the way to the top! While this isn’t life changing, it illustrates how if you just take a single moment to tell someone you believe in them, they will start to believe in themselves as well. Who knows, they might even begin to think that they actually can achieve the dreams God has given them.
On the other hand, people aren’t stupid. They might not know what you are saying, but they know you are talking bad about them. They can see how you avoid them and don’t invite them parties and how they never get to go see the movies. Loving people as God loves us is being willing to step outside of our comfort zones and make a sacrifice so that someone else can be blessed. When we don’t believe in people they start to think; “If I’m not even good enough for these Christians, how can I ever be good enough for God?” Every word that comes out of our mouths has power and affects someone somehow, its up to you to decide weather that affect is positive or negative.
If we want to serve God, and I mean really serve Him, then we will choose to stop pointing out everyone’s faults and failings and start believing in God’s children. We don’t gossip about people we love, but isn’t it funny that God has called us to love ALL of His children, not just the ones who are easy to love. It’s a choice that we should make everyday. I know that I am human and far from perfect, but I want to be known as a person who builds people up, always looks for the best in others, and takes every opportunity to encourage others in their walk with God. It is my prayer is that God will allow me to see His people through His eyes so that I can love them as He loves them.
