Thinking

Those who have known me a long time wonder why I do not post as much as I used to about what is going on. Others just wonder why I post less. Life is still busy and getting busier all the time.

It's different now though. I know who is sick, who is in crisis, who has issues, who is mad and who is happy, who is broken hearted or struggling and all sorts of things, but to tell most of these things amounts to gossip. Each person has their own story to tell and it is not my place to tell it unless they want me to or say it is okay. Even then I hesitate. While some things are fine to tell one on one, they are not appropriate as front page news. Much of my life right now centers on people. And it is quite an adventure! Things have happened that I never expected to happen.

When I am writing about people blog readers do not know, it is just a story about an anonymous person. It's different if many know them. It can become gossip. There are those who feel it is their job to question others. There are those who judge and act judgmentally. There are those who feel their job is to confront. There are those who will ridicule. There are those who will take on a condescending attitude. There are the phonies with all their creepiness. There are the saddists who will try to make it worse. There are those who take advantage of others. There are those who say hateful things. There are those who get their jollies out of rubbing salt in other people's wounds. There are people who like to blame. There are people who use things as an excuse to exclude others or to look down on them. They humiliate and upset others without much empathy or conscience. (This is all sin but those who do it often do not recognize it. They see the splinter in the eye of the others and not the log in their own.)

I am not a private person but I understand those who are. After a few attacks, I have become a little more private too. (I'm not going to tell you who attacked. That's gossip and one might have been you??)

Every so often someone has said to me that they have said something to a pastor only to hear it come back in a negative way hours, weeks or months later and it is upsetting to them. It becomes a breach of trust in their mind. I want to avoid that. If I wrote what was going on in my daily life, much of it would sound like a soap box series or a gossip columnist. Everybody has issues but most of the time it should stay between them and God and the others involved.

Many people have things happening in their lives that are not exactly secret but they do not want announced either. We need to respect those wishes.

And now, it is a beautiful day. Time to attend to tasks and enjoy the sunshine.