Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will nev… well, words could destroy me.

Remember the game of telephone? One person starts off by whispering something in someone’s ear, then that person whispers in the next person’s ear, and so on and so forth until you get to the last person which then brings the game to this crowning moment, where you see whether or not your basic communication skills of listening to exactly what was said and passing it on, verbatim, has passed this most rigorous and challenging test.

Now I don’t know about your games of telephone but mine never finished successfully. What started off as a plain, basic comment like “Johnny loves Winnie the Pooh!” turned into “Jonny smells like poo!” (the preceding being a childish example). Of course as you get older, there is more scheming planned to get the last person to say something embarrassing out loud. You know the set-up- the class or a small group of friends schemes to get the last person to say something like “Chris loves Rachel and thinks she smells prettier then potpourri!” Another childish example perhaps, but then again, the game in itself is for children.

But when you think of it, all the joy in the game does not just rest in getting someone to stand up and say something embarrassing. No, not at all! You see, we like mixing the message up: saying what we want to say, putting our own spin on it. When we listen to what’s being told to us we have selective hearing; we pick up the things that perk our attention and then spice it up a bit. We make it funnier, more entertaining, more dramatic. Why? Because we love the element of human drama, to “stir up the pot” so to say.

If you don’t believe me well then either you’re sheltered (which I understand) or ignorant (which I don’t understand). If you want your ignorance or innocence shattered then simply turn on the TV and take note of some of the best shows; they’re called dramas for a reason. Of course we cannot forget our infatuation with pop culture drama. If I say tabloids are garbage, you would agree, right? But then why are so many of them still in publication? Perhaps because this superior race of humanity gets this twisted high off of garbage diving into each others lives- taking molehills of our imperfections and making mountains of false trash by slander and gossip. Are we getting the point yet or shall I continue to beat this dead horse?

Okay…but just in case you need a little more proof, something to make this social experiment a little more real, well then just spend time with a group of people whether at school, work, church, it doesn’t matter. Chances are good that eventually you’ll meet someone who’s sitting at the switchboard crossing more lines then Jim Bakker.

What I don’t get is why we play the same childish game each and everyday whether consciously or subconsciously, whether with intent or simply being guilty by association. Why do we take a simple statement or action, disregard character, context, personality, or any other relevant detail and simply turn things into a “he said, she said, he said” game?

If you’re looking for an answer from me, well, I don’t have some deep, profound revelation to expound upon- just mere opinion and observation.

And my observation is this- it’s rooted in self-centered, petty, childish pride.

The other observation I have comes from a more solid place and I think cuts into the issue a little more as to what we should do and why.

You see, many of us also have this crush on the early church and how they lived and acted as a community. Devoting themselves to be like Christ, to the teachings of the apostles and to their fellowship with one another, selling all they had and gathering together daily with a devoted love for Christ and each other. They encouraged one another; they shared their blessings with one another; and they gathered together with glad and sincere hearts, not cynical and bitter hearts. They praised God together and enjoyed the favor of all the people and the favor of one another.

That is appealing to us as the body of Christ. That’s a community we should desire and pursue to be like, or at least it should be. We’ve been given love, we’ve been shown love, both how to love and reason to love.

Shown love: John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends”…then Jesus was crucified.

How to love: John 13:1 “Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love”…then Jesus washed their feet, forever giving us the example that we must humbly serve and love one another for when we don’t, in essence, we are saying that something is beneath us, that someone is beneath us, that we are better then Christ.

Reason to love: 1 John 4:19 “We love because He first loved us.”

1 John 4:7-8 “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

1 John 4:20-21 “If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

Those last two should cut to the heart like a double-edged sword; “…whoever says they love God and hates their brother is a liar” OUCH! And then “whoever does not love does not know God.” Do you feel that sting? That’s truth piercing your heart.

And these truths should not just be brushed aside; they shouldn’t be rationalized with empty-hearted reasoning like “Well, I don’t hate that person” because I believe the word hate here is used not to just make a strong point but to show us that if we are not genuinely trying to love one another in the way that He loves us then we are being hateful to one another.

So brothers and sisters, let us continue to die to ourselves, to die to our pride and to pick up the cross, the same cross of love and humility that Christ bore for us, joyously.

Why? For we are one as the bride of Christ and because He first loved us….

unconditionally with mercy and a reckless, passionate abandon out of a desire to glorify and obey God and to pay the price for His bride.