By Name · Week 1 · Thursday · SCREENS
He is a college sophomore, and at two in the morning a friend from his hall sent him a long message.
His friend is failing two classes. He has not told his dad, and his dad is the kind of man you do not want to tell. He has not been to chemistry in three weeks. He does not know what to do. The last line says: please do not tell anyone.
In the morning he screenshotted it and dropped it in a group chat with seven other guys. He added a joke about chemistry. It was a pretty good joke. Everybody laughed.
By lunch somebody had forwarded it to another chat. By dinner his friend knew.
Sometimes you are the one doing the trampling
This whole week we have been talking about the crowd, and how it takes what you hand it and moves on. It is easy to read that and picture the crowd as everybody else.
Do not give dogs what is holy; do not throw your pearls before swine. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.Matthew 7:6 (BSB)
His friend did not throw anything before swine. He handed something holy to one person he trusted, at two in the morning, and asked him to keep it. The trampling did not come from strangers. It came from him.
A gossip reveals a secret, but a trustworthy person keeps a confidence.Proverbs 11:13 (BSB)
I put this story in the middle of the week on purpose. If you have read Monday through Wednesday nodding along, it is worth asking whether you have ever been the one with the screenshot.
He went down the hall
He did not text an apology. A text would have been easier and he knew it, which is how he knew it was not enough.
He walked down the hall and knocked. He said what he did was wrong. He did not say he did not think it would spread. He did not say it was just a joke. He said it was wrong, and he stopped there.
So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,Matthew 5:23 (BSB)
leave your gift there before the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.Matthew 5:24 (BSB)
Then he went back to the group chat, the same seven guys, and typed: that was wrong of me. Delete it.
What it cost: the group told him to relax, it was a joke. Somebody called him pastor. One of them left the chat.
His friend said okay and closed the door. He has not forgiven him. He might, someday. He might not. That is not his to decide.
He was not part of the crowd. He was the reason there was one.
Doing the right thing did not get him his friend back. It just meant he stopped adding to the damage, and went first.
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