The Jaguar That Ate The Crocodile

The Jaguar That Ate the Crocodile

While I was checking my Facebook account one day, I came across a cool video of a jaguar pulling a crocodile out of a river. The jaguar was crouching over the water on the edge of a rock. The next thing you know, the jaguar jumps into the murky water below the surface, brings up a crocodile, and hauls it off for a meal. Immediately following that video, I watched a house cat stare down an alligator and make it go running. Immediately after that, in another video, I heard the bleating of a deer and saw it struggling to escape the death grip of a grizzly bear. Yeah, that last one I could have done without. You can see some crazy videos on Facebook!

How often do you want to click on that “viral video” just to see some street brawl, to hear about the latest celebrity scandal, or to watch nature take its course when a bear eats a deer for dinner? There is something captivating about it that causes us to wonder, Why did I want to watch that?

Gossip has the same effect on us. Unverified accusations about a friend, coworker, or family member have an initial appeal that we can’t escape. Proverbs 18:8 says, “Rumors are dainty morsels that sink deep into one’s heart.” But after a while we wonder why we were so engrossed in the story, realizing we would have been better off had we ignored the mess entirely. Scripture challenges us to avoid gossip and the gossiper. Proverbs 20:19 states, “A gossip goes around telling secrets, so don’t hang around with chatterers.”

A gossip goes around telling secrets, so don’t hang around with chatterers.

Proverbs 20:19