gaggles and gossip

Have you ever spent much time around middle school girls? Especially the younger ones that are just crossing out of childhood into the teenage years? When I was involved in Youth Ministry I dreaded meetings with the middle schoolers, not because I didn't want to be around them, but because I had no idea what the complex matrix of relationships among the girls would look like that day. I would always hear things like, "I'm not friends with her anymore because she said..." or "She told so and so that I like him and I don't!" (Though in reality I knew she did.) It always reminded me of a gaggle of geese all honking and snipping at each other.

I feel much the same way with the situation going on in our church right now. It's hard for me to get into a spirit of worship anymore becuase there are people on both sides of the issues that are acting like a gaggle of 6th grade girls. "They're just being judgemental and trying to play God." "So and so said such and such about the pastor and that's just not right." And the sad thing is that much of the "information" that is being passed around is third, fourth, or fifth hand or even farther from the source. "Well I heard that Joe Bob was talking to Mary Ellen and she said that Betty Sue told her that Billy Frank said ..." You get the picture.

I just wish that everyone, on both sides, would realize that our reason for coming together in the first place is to worship the living God, the Creator of the universe. Let's get back to doing that and all the gossip and back-biting and manipulations will seem so petty and insignificant in the light of His glory.