Heard it Through the Grapevine: Gossip Grapes

" I heard it through the grapevine

not much longer would you be mine.

Oh I heard it through the grapevine,

Oh and I'm just about to lose my mind.

Honey, honey yeah."

I'm sure you've all heard these famous lyrics and even used the phrase that you heard a certain piece of gossip "through the grapevine."

We've all taken a grape off the vine of loose lips.

Most of us have been on the receiving end/giving end. 

And for some of us, we were the wine of the season. 

Everyone was tasting, talking about just what we were made of; how we measured up to the wine they tasted last month. 

I have a bit of news myself to share: 

Those tasty grapes from the grapevine are small bits of poison. 

Each time you pluck one of those little morsels off and feed it to someone else or even take one from someone else who hands it to you, you are poisoning yourself. 

The bible even tells us that the tongue is the most difficult thing we possess to control. 

Psalm 34:13 ESV 

Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.

Proverbs 17:28 ESV 

Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.

Proverbs 15:4 ESV 

A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

I don't know about you, but to me a break in my spirit sounds like pretty serious stuff. 

The last thing I want is for my lips to be loose and be a "Did you hear?!" Christian. 

The last thing I want is for my ears to be so open that I never block out my neighbor stripping another follower's character to shreds. 

Someone once flippantly said to me: "It isn't gossip if its true." 

This is untrue and disturbing that so many believers see talking about others so lightly. 

Gossip is idle talk or rumor about the personal or private affairs of others. It is one of the oldest and most common means of sharing facts, views and slander.

This term is used pejoratively by its reputation for the introduction of errors and variations into the information transmitted, and it also describes idle chat, a rumor of personal, or trivial nature.

Now, many times we see our flapping lips as justified. 

I mean, if you know all the facts it's okay right? 

You couldn't be more wrong. 

You're eating the poisonous grapes without even realizing it. 

How dangerous. 

We never know all the details, especially not enough to claim our snip bits of here say as facts. 

You either fall into one of three categories: 

The plucker, the receiver/processor, the wine. 

I've been all three.

I've plucked the gossip grape, received and savored the grape but I've also been the "wine of the month." 

On display for anyone and everyone to inspect my quality of life. 

As Christians we often like to take what we like and leave the rest that makes us uncomfortable. 

We like to hit on adultery, homosexuals and drinking margaritas. 

We like to sweep gluttony, gossip and greed back under the couch. 

They're all in the same list people, have we forgotten? 

I want to encourage all three groups. 

To the plucker: you are serving poison to your neighbor.

Would you serve rat poison to sweet, half way dead Mrs. Flowerbed next door? 

Of course not. 

Stop the cycle. 

Your spirit hangs in the balance.

To the receiver/wine taster: 

Have you ever attended a wine tasting?

You taste small glass after small glass. 

Then you find yourself fumbling to find your car keys. 

You are slowly poisoning yourself glass by glass. 

Say "no thank you" to the plucker who made a nice glass of gossip just for you. 

To the wine: 

Just like the finest bottles, you will get better with time. 

Hold on. 

People who speak hurtful words behind your back are right where they belong: behind you.

Don't let this season cause you to be a bitter wine. 

Ephesians 4:29 ESV 

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Dear Noah: On Your Birthday.

Dear Noah: 

Where do I begin? You're the only person who gives me writer's block. 

You're the only one who has, does and always will see me. 

You're the only one who saw me letting my dreams flutter away, only to catch them and keep them safe for me while my heart was away from them. 

You're the only one who had me so confused I could only react by being rude and rebellious around you. 

You were the first to read my writings and beg for more. 

You were the first to remember every word I said, even the ones I didn't know you heard. 

You were the first I told my biggest hurt to. 

You picked out the red and clear gummy bears because you knew they were my favorite. 

You listened when I questioned God and never tried to push your beliefs on me, knowing all along I'd find my way back home. 

You stopped in your tracks each time I entered the room. 

I could see the breath leaving your body when I smiled.

Other guys made me feel attractive, but never beautiful. 

To many men I may have been one of several pretty girls in a room, but to you I was the only girl you could see. 

You challenged my mind with our hours and hours of theology discussions. 

You challenged my heart with your own.

When I see you hug your boys necks my spirit leaps. 

When I see your face light up when you talk about ministry by heart literally bursts. 

You were the first to pray over me/with me. 

When I hear you speaking to the heavens on my behalf my breath is taken far from me. 

I know we've had it rough. 

I know some day more rough times will come our way. 

I know we've lost a few people along the way, but we've tripled our loss with even more people who love us beyond our past. 

I know our story can be hard to take hold of to so many, but I know when they see the way my eyes light up when I hear your name, they get it. 

So yes, we are celebrating your birthday. This day changed my life forever before I even knew it. 

“So it's not gonna be easy. It's going to be really hard; we're gonna have to work at this everyday, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, everyday. You and me... everyday.”

-Noah 

I'll be seein you,

Allie. 

Washing Dishes and Washing Feet

   I finally made it on the plane to Caracas, Venezuela after 6 years of waiting to return. 

I still remember the feeling in my gut stepping back onto American soil after an incredible and life-changing week at the Samuel's House orphanage. 

The United States would never again feel like home to me. Sure it was comfortable, but home? 

No more. 

The first hug I received from a wide-eyed, dark-skinned little girl with seemingly no reason to rejoice altered my universe-one that once revolved around me. 

I was a selfish, arrogant, rebellious 17 year old child even though at the time I saw myself as an adult. 

What a joke. 

I knew a lot about Jesus but I had no idea who He was. 

My relationship with Jesus has morphed and turned my world upside down, inside out and shaken everything I thought I knew about being a follower. 

I have made a transition from fan to follower. 

Pain does that to you. 

In the past 6 years I've gone through seasons of dryness, anger, mourning and joy. 

When I originally planned this trip my life was in a completely different place than it was today.

I have recently suffered great grief, great change, but great freedom. 

I have lost some people that I pictured holding my hand through every life's season. 

I have planted seeds in new places and taken roots in fresh soil. 

I have learned to smile again for no reason. 

I have learned to not force people to stay in my life, but to remain open to anyone willing to stay. 

I have learned to laugh at life and change. 

I have learned to love people so deep it has consumed every thought and keeps me up at night.

I have learned its okay to let go when you've fought yourself to your own collapse. 

Part of me thought I should cancel the trip to Caracas all together. 

I let a select few's words poison the dream God planted in me before I even had a name. 

God wasn't going to let that happen. 

Words to any of you: 

Nobody, I say NOBODY can wipe away the identity Christ has given you. 

NOBODY can write whatever they want on you without your consent. 

In a matter of three months I have been shattered into a million pieces, to sitting on an airplane with a smile on my face and a song in my heart. 

How? 

I ask myself that everyday. 

Jesus is in the business of broken people. 

God met me while my face was buried in that off-white carpet that day. 

I was screaming, hurting and angry. 

I was clawing my nails into the carpet and sobbing uncontrollably like a child away from his mother for the first time. 

I was doing much more talking than listening that day. 

God laid on that carpet by my tear-stained sleeves and reminded me of Who I was dealing with. 

I was dealing with the same Jesus Who took a murderer and turned him into a ruler. 

I was dealing with the same Jesus Who took a stuttering man and with him parted seas of red. 

I was dealing with the same Jesus Who took adulterers, killers, losers, screw-ups & turned them into vessels. 

There was no way Jesus was letting me off that easy. 

My life pivoted at that moment. 

Jesus came into my life like never before. 

I have become head over heels in love with Jesus. 

Ive fallen so hard and deep I find myself loving people I couldn't love before. 

God took me, broke me, rebuilt me from the bottom up. 

He shook me, washed me and clothed me with new garments. 

When I see old friends they notice that thing some people have in their eyes after they've just had their honeymoon. 

That's what it feels like to be in love, in obsession with Jesus. 

I went into the week absolutely blind, but open to anything and everything Jesus had for me. 

The week was not what I expected. 

At first, I questioned God as to why He would bring me all the way to another country to...clean dishes and mop floors. 

That week I witnessed servant hood in a real and tangible first-hand way. 

One morning as I washed dishes, staring at the beautiful Caracas mountains God stood next to me and spoke in a quiet, clear voice.

My heart had been broken for this exact week, this exact moment in my life. 

God allowed me to experience brokenness in order for me to experience restoration. 

All the scrubbing, drying, washing, mopping; it was for me after all. 

To go and give of myself, asking for nothing back. 

To go and wash another's feet. 

I expected to go and teach others about Jesus, but ended up being taught lessons by people who never spoke a word of English. 

They didn't have to. 

Isn't that amazing? 

The woman who cleaned/cooked everything every day with a smile on her face showed me Jesus in a way I've never know before, and she couldn't even speak my language. 

This week was to show me that this life I live is not about Britney, but about everyone else. 

I learned how to shred 10 pounds of meat by hand, fold trash bags, prepare plates for upcoming groups of volunteers. 

I swept a floor that I knew would re-dirty within ten minutes of my cleaning. 

I washed dishes I knew would be stained with food again within 2 hours of my labor.

Sometimes you must minister behind the scenes of another ministry. 

You may never get recognition. 

You may never get servant of the week at your local church. 

That. Doesn't. Matter. 

Jesus has washed my feet for so long, knowing I'd wander off to only get them muddy again. 

Yet He washes them again. 

And again. 

And again. 

What God spoke to me as I stared out that window has changed the way I see myself in future ministry: 

"Britney, don't you see? I have brought you to the perfect place for ministry: on your knees." 

God brought me across the world to shake me up and open my eyes to my lack of a servants heart and need to only minister in the lime light. 

May I always remember washing those dishes. 

May I always serve in small tasks to make big impacts.