What is Faster than the Speed of Light?

Light is hoofing it at a whopping 669,600,000 mph.  Is there anything faster though?  Is it the fastest manned plane?  No, but the US Air Force X-15 clocks in at 4,519 mph.  What about lightning?  You do see the flash of the lightning at the speed of light, but lightning is going about 224,000 mph.  What about muon neutrino particles?  Scientists tested them going the distance between Geneva, Switzerland and Gran Sasso, Italy at a nanosecond faster than light.  One nanosecond?  Let’s stick with the speed of light at 186,000 miles per second for sake of getting to the point!  Is there anything faster than the speed of light?

What about your metabolism rate?  Well…If you’ve reached 40+, then I’d say no to that too!  Though I haven’t seen it on any Google, Bing, or Wikipedia search; I think I may have found what is faster than the speed of light.  It is none other than…Gossip!  In the hands of a busybody, gotta know everything about everyone, telling anyone who will listen kinda person; gossip is extremely fast!  Most people won’t admit they are gossiping, or at least perpetuating gossip with their ever listening ear.  Many Christians claim they are merely reporting the facts or giving a “prayer request.”

Here is a gossip test.  Do you talk about others without trying to help that person in some tangible or spiritual manner?  Gossip!  Are you telling something in order to make yourself look better and/or make the other person look worse? Gossip!  Are you telling something for fear your tongue will fall off if you don’t.  Gossip!  Most people are daily gossips, filling in facts and thoughts from our own opinion of what is happening.  Some people are very spiteful in their use of it to gain an upper hand or tear someone apart.

It seems to be woven into the very fiber of our society.  Even news bulletins are hard to distinguish if it is really news or mere gossip.  So how do you stop it?  It is so popular in culture, why should we even think about stopping it?  I love Psalm 15 because it asks the question “Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord?”  Part of the reply is, “Those who refuse to gossip.”  Gossip and God never go together!  That’s why you stop.

Here are three very difficult steps to stopping gossip in your own life.  Step #1: Choose to talk in a manner to build up, not destroy.  Step #2: Choose to stop giving attention to those that are always talking about other people.  (Remember, those who talk about others in front of you will inevitably talk about you when they are in front of others.)  Step #3: Repent when you mess up and repeat steps #1 and #2!  Proverbs 20:19 tells us “A gossip goes around telling secrets, so don’t hang around with chatterers.” Choose God; not gossip!

In Christ Alone and continuing to prayer,
Chad

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