Gossip is Like a Fire Truck?

                                   Where's the Fire??!!

Who What When and Where

Back in the early 70's when I was about 13 or 14 years old, I lived with my family in a small town named Greenville. Original name, I know. There is one in about every state and back then our Greenville was no different. And yes, it was (and is) very green. I believe it was about that same time that we got our first and only sky scraper built by Fluor Daniel Construction (before Fluor entered the picture). The Daniels lived in Greenville and so we were afforded the privilege of boasting this monument of great promise. This in a place where everything else had been abandoned for the new mall that had just been built nearer to the residential areas. Downtown had become a ghost town but we had a Kmart back then and little else. That is why Alexanders' was the place to go for more catalog wants. It was across town from our house; I'd say about 8 miles. I mention it because there was this one particular Saturday afternoon Dad took my brother, Devin who was about 10 years old, to Alexanders to look around and see what they could find; Dad hoping to come home with something he didn't already own. Mom had begun to make dinner and I was back in my room....probably kissing Bobby Sherman's poster. What an age! I don't really remember where everyone was when things got disrupted, but they did get disrupted!

A Lesson in Emergencies

As Dad and Devin set out for home they had to pull over and let a fire truck go by. It was a great opportunity, siren screaming, to educate Devin on emergencies such as fires in the home. The way Dad went about it was this: "Oh boy, Devin! You want to follow the fire truck?" Devin: "Yeah, Dad, let's go!" So, yes, they did. They followed the fire truck all the way across town. "Look Dad, it's on our side of town!" exclaimed Devin. A few more minutes into the illegal chase... "Look Dad! It's in our neighborhood!" he shouted. Both of them were on high adrenaline now as they pulled into the very familiar landscape. Now they began intently looking for signs of fire perhaps in the woods for they had caught fire before.

No Turning Back

As they continued on, it began to sink in that the truck was coming too close to our very own house. I'm sure Dad's face changed from one of excitement to concern to well...horror as the surreal became too real. The truck had stopped at 117; the number of our own house where there was a fried chicken fricassee happening all over the now blackened kitchen still bursting into a new flame here and there, to be put out! The firemen had it out in no time, but the kitchen was a total loss. In just a little while the fans were up to draw the smoke out of the rest of the house, Mom crying and Dad hugging her while we kids went hanging like monkeys all over the fire truck.
That was a day to remember.

Happy Endings

Since then our little town has grown to be one of the most visited cities in America; the downtown revived and thriving.  My mother went on to burn down the kitchen just a few more times and Dad likes to say he learned to fly so he could dump water on the house if needed or rescue someone off the roof. Well....bless Mom's heart. To be fair, she may not have been one to stand over a hot stove waiting for the grease to get hot, but for the most part she was a very good cook and we loved her suppers!

In Retrospect

Why is it our pulse races just a little bit when there is a hint of alarm in the air? We want to know who, what, why and where, and as soon as possible. It is an inherent need to be in the know or the first one at the scene of whatever has thrown another's life off course. Are we asking ourselves why we must know? Why we must run to? This isn't to say that motive can't be good. Some people naturally go into rescue mode. They may rescue the victim of an accident or even the victim of vicious gossip. Yet others may just want to be in the mix! I always admired my best childhood friend in those days for deliberately staying out of any squabble or painfully embarrassing accident. While everyone else had to have an opinion over an incident, Millie did not. I learned from her, however it was years later. The mental note I made never went away and I finally grew into it. I wish I could say I had her wisdom much sooner, but it wasn't always that way.

The Nature of the Beast

You ever wonder why the traffic has slowed to a creeping crawl for two long miles only to find out that everyone had to have a good look at the fender bender on the side of the road? Now you find yourself looking too? Maybe thinking surely there was more to it than that, and looking for the blood? And how about those news reporters like schools of little fish rushing here and there at the hint of a feeding frenzy because they must not be left out of whatever is being torn apart?
Proverbs 8:6-7  tells us that "the lips of fools bring them strife and their mouths invite a beating,7 the mouths of fools are their undoing, and their lips are a snare to their very lives".
Gossip is a lot like a fire truck; it's colorful and exciting, with lots of bells and whistles and ladders so that one can go as far up and into the fire as they want to! And a fire truck can get everyone's attention as soon as the siren is heard in the far distance, just like a juicy morsel of gossip.  Hopefully there will be the one person who knows where the fire hose is and how to put it out! But for the most part gossip is an eternal fire as long as there is an audience and there always will be.
  Proverbs 26:20 Without wood a fire goes out; without a gossip a quarrel dies down 21 As charcoal to embers and as wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome person for causing strife.

I Didn't Start It!

So what if you are not the slanderer? The initiator? Did you lean your ear in? Did you even think about it first? I admit I have had to reign myself in a lot lately because there is much to be heard. I have not kept my little nose out of the wind of adversity entirely and I have been convicted of it. One thing I know for sure; that gossip is always spoken in order to exalt one's self.

God Did not Give us a Nose for News

My question to you is this. Will you resist the temptation to lift your nose up to the wind and smell what direction the gossip is coming from? To run to it or even justify sitting still knowing it will eventually come to you? I can tell you what I love more...peace. Shalom peace. And I will gladly give up knowing who, what, when and where for that part of God. He has been wonderful to me and I do not owe it to Him to hurt my brother with a nod of the head in a room full of piranhas or even one smile in the face of a flowery tongued messenger.

Spare me the Drama

Let me offer an example of "spare me the drama" which depicts a healthy mindset in the matter.  After a throw-down with myself, I finally came to a place where I was ready to grow up. I had reached the end of myself and was ready for God to take over. I had been through several years of self -medicating which had in them one car accident and one near arrest (after the after-the-wedding-reception reception was over). So as I rode my beach bike down my quiet little island street on Wilmington Island to a friend's house, I tried hard to ignore the three Sheriff's cars going by rather quickly... toward my home. 'It's nothing', I told my paranoid self as I successfully carried on and spent a lovely afternoon with friends. I couldn't help but wonder though what event they were rushing down Omler Loop to. Upon returning that evening, I learned that a dead body had been discovered in the driveway next to mine just under the bushes. It made national news! A drug deal gone bad on the way from Florida to New Jersey and he picked our little island and our little street and close enough to my little house to...well, drop his bloody buddy off! I was tuned into Jesus then and willing to move along with Him rather than look for trouble. Had I turned around and followed the police cars, I would have wound up at my own driveway which split off into my neighbor's as well. It would have been an exciting evening for sure, but I was somehow glad to have missed it. I loved where I was; in fellowship with friends playing Trivial Pursuit, eating wonderful food and laughing a whole lot!  Makes me think of the verse “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead” ha ha. Of course here, Jesus is talking to a young man about burying his father before coming with Him, but I believe this also applies to all of us in life! Why waste our time with harmful distractions when we could be in the sweet spot of God's will?

Prayer of Repentance

Dear Lord Father God, I ask that you would forgive us where we have fallen short and harmed another with our reckless words.  That You would empower us with virtue that rises above the easy flow of lies and gossip. That we would come up higher and know mercy and grace and a blessed silence. We state here and now that we prefer Your presence. We prefer to follow You, Lord, wherever you go instead of the fire truck. For it is a very real possibility that if we follow that firetruck of gossip, we just may wind up at our own address with our own homes on fire. May it never be! And may we be the ones to step in and reach for the hose, always preferring Love. In the Name of Jesus we pray. Amen

I love you, God loves you. Now go and love yourself as God's own. And remember  Proverbs 29:11 ... But a wise man speaks carefully. He does not speak hastily, or without study, or offer opinions as truth. He rules his mouth to choose wise words and wait for the right timing.

God Bless,
Uncultered Pearl