GOSSIP IS NOT ALL BAD
I know the Bible is pretty hard on gossip and most churches generally condemn it while participating in it with wild abandon. However, I wonder what would happen if we dedicated ourselves to a season of good gossip. Instead of using social media to spread bad news, what if it were part of our effort to spread good news.
THE CHALLENGE OF GOSSIPING GOOD NEWS
Here is the challenge. Imagine what would happen if your church committed herself to spread gossip for thirty days. Only in this case, it would be gossiping about good news. In fact, you don’t have to wait for your church to commit to this type of gossip. It can begin with you. Find a small calendar, one of those often given away as advertisements, and tear out a page showing a month and tape it where you will see it every day.
THIRTY DAYS OF POSITIVE GOSSIP
Each day you will pass on some good news to someone. You can do it person to person on one day. The next day you can send a positive email. Another day you might post some positive gossip on Facebook or Twitter. Check it off on your calendar and if you miss a day, double up.
IMPACT YOU, ANOTHER PERSON, WORLD
Each day you have to think of something positive to say about another person, an event in the world, conditions of life, a hope you have. Doing that will have a healing effect on your own emotional state. In addition, the person you are communicating with will feel a positive emotion. Even if your good news is a simple smile or a pat on the back. It will have a positive input. In each case, there is a healing effect and if you do it for thirty days, you can be feeling pretty good for a whole month.
IT ONLY TAKES YOU
You don’t have to wait for someone else to begin this. IT ONLY TAKES YOU. You are not even dependent on how the other person responds. I once sent ten comedy CDs to ten people to offer them some humor. Even picking them out and imagining how they might respond gave me a good feeling.
THE WORLD IS HUNGRY FOR GOOD NEWS
As you share your story with others, you can encourage them to pass it on. Picture one church sharing good news of thanks with other churches and they, in turn, doing it for other churches. It could get to be an epidemic of good news that could be healing for a fractured world. Maybe we could even do it for institutions, government, and international leaders. There is no way of measuring the impact. And regardless, you have benefited.
Not only a great idea but it depends on no one else just do it.