A few years back our family was driving home from a visit with family in Windsor and one of my daughters happened to notice a tree that was on fire.
We turned around to check it out and let the owner know. Amazingly, he was very nonchalant about the whole thing, and while he dithered and delayed, the fire grew much worse. Furthermore, he had only a small garden hose, something that seemed quite inadequate for the task at hand.
He had been burning brush earlier in the evening and had not put the fire out. An easterly breeze blew sparks into the tree and that was how it caught fire. We offered to call the fire department but he declined our offer and told us he would look after it.
A few weeks later we drove by and saw that the tree had been cut down. What started out as a small, unattended fire soon spread to cause extensive damage. Sin is a lot like that, especially gossip.
Proverbs 26:20 says, “Without wood a fire goes out; without gossips, conflict calms down.” Gossip appeals to us because the details are usually juicy and tantalizing, but the fruit of such illicit pleasure is detrimental to all.
Let’s be careful about the topics of our conversation and be mindful of building others up, instead of tearing them down. Let’s see if we can put this into practice this week.