Gossip gets overlooked. It should not. It’s a nasty, nasty, nasty concoction! Let me explain the recipe.

Toxic Bitterness: This is what you get when you let anger, frustration and hurt fester.

Test: If you can immediately name the people with whom you are angry, watch out. You’ve got it.

Cowardice: It takes courage to speak to the person with whom you have conflict. The opposite of courage is cowardice.

Test: If you have lots of angry, imaginary “conversations” with people who have angered you, but you never have the conversation for real, own up to the fact that you are a coward.

Selfishness: Anger and hurt well up inside of us, and we think it will feel so good to let it all out. But when we cowardly avoid the one person to whom we need to speak, we end up selfishly indulging ourselves by spewing out our distaste for someone else.

Test: Do you preface your gossip with, “I’m sorry but…” and then rip someone to shreds? Are you sorry to your listener or to God? It’s ugly sin either way.

This recipe for gossip never ends well. It may cause someone to hate another. It may cause them to hate the gossiper. And it may cause them to repeat this whole process to another. Sickness will spread like the stomach flu.

So the next time you are thinking about opening your big yapper to spew some discontent, remember the ugly ingredients in your pot of stew.

To hear more about unhealthy responses to anger, come to Highland Park on August 4th, or listen to the sermon online.