Articles
Haunted by Our Words
We are seeing a rash of stories about what some public figures have tweeted or posted several years in the past. Many of the messages are beyond inappropriate; they are disgusting, vile and crude. Sometimes opponents have searched public records for past indiscretions and published them to gain an advantage. Other times a former romantic interest shared private communications to retaliate for some grievance. Whatever the reason, it is a painful thing to have one’s foolish, ill-considered words splashed across newsfeeds for the world to read.
Several lessons come to mind:
1. Our words make a powerful impact for good or bad. We can build up others with them, or we can destroy with hatefulness, sarcasm, disparagement, criticism, etc. (Jas 2:5-6, 8; 4:11).
2. Immature words spoken in humor or to impress may seem harmless at the time, but when the moment passes and our words are unframed by context they may bring great shame.
3. A few ill-spoken words or a single foolish episode that becomes public may irreversibly blight our reputation. It may not be fair, but it happens. We must not let our guard down, especially in this era of surveillance cameras, smart phones and Sacha Baron Cohen frame-up interviews.
4. Apologizing only after getting caught may ring hollow or be written off as self-serving. Let us not wait until the crisis explodes to try and make amends (Mt 5:23-24).
5. God always reads our texts and posts.
