The Ballestero Blog

I Sinned A Great Sin Today.

I am so ashamed of myself. I’m sure God is ashamed of me too. I can’t believe I fell for one of the oldest tricks in Satan’s Handbook. I knew better. I’ve even preached and written about it. I am without excuse.

I passed on some information that I’d gotten from an ‘Official’ source, and that ‘Accurate’ information was later determined to be untrue.

The ‘news’ of an acquaintance’ failure brought pain to my heart, and pain to the hearts of the three people I told.

One of the friends, that I’d told, did some calling around and then called me back to tell me the rumor was determined to be unfounded.

That was welcomed news! Thank you Jesus!

But now what?

How do I fix this mess I helped create? I didn’t mean to do wrong, but I did.

I called the other two friends I’d told to tell them the good news. I told them there was no truth to the story. I told them I had given them wrong information. But it was too late.

I wish that were the end of my story. But it’s not.

How do you ‘untell’ something? How do you stop the rumor once it takes wings?

Imagine cutting open a pillow on a windy day and letting all the feathers blow away. Then, after the pillow is empty, just think how hard it would be to go find every feather and put them all back in the pillowcase. Impossible to do.

Am I so sorry I said something that was not true? I’m sorry a thousand times over!

Even though I didn’t mean to be malicious or vicious, I was. Although I thought I was relaying something that was fact and common knowledge, I wasn’t. I was wrong no matter how you look at it.

I disparaged a man’s reputation, I did harm to myself in the process as well. Even if he is totally vindicated in the long run, my believability now is severely damaged. I’m sure I deserve it.

My friend’s that I told had to make calls to the ones they told. They then those people have to call the ones that they told. How many calls will be made? Not enough I’m sure.

I can’t completely undo what I did. I am ashamed. I was wrong. That’s part of the pain of passing along a rumor. Not to mention the graver damage that I did to an innocent child of God.

Pardon me now while I go pray now. I got a call I gotta make too.

Lev. 19:16 Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the LORD.

Prov. 26:22 The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.