Has your name ever been falsely tarnished? Have you even been wrongly accused? Or even worse, have you ever knowingly accused someone else wrongly, and in the process tarnished a good name? No? Are you sure?
I have known my friend a long time. We go back a long way and have shared many of life's ups and downs over the years, and he has always been high in my estimation as a fine, upstanding Christian. Until yesterday that is.
Social Networking sites like Facebook are great for keeping in touch with friends far and near. It is good for a wee bit of fun. Good natured, and light hearted fun. Then my world took a dive. My upstanding Christian friend put something up on his Facebook wall, for all his 'friends' to see, which was less than wholesome. I was shocked, amazed and disappointed. How could this person, above everyone else, stoop so low? I took immediate steps, and did the right thing by removing him from my feed list, and to keep myself right, I sent him a separate message to tell him what I had done, and why. After all, as a Christian, I didn't want that kind of thing showing up on my own feed. What would people think?
I was wrong at many levels. So wrong. I should have trusted my instincts, you know the same ones which saw us through some dark times together, but no, I 'deleted' him. Just like that. He called me back to say he had no idea what I was talking about. As a new Facebook user, he wasn't sure of his ground and got his daughter to help him change his security settings. My friend was as appalled as I was to see what had happened. Someone had hacked into his profile, and posted some unsavoury stuff in his name, and unknown to him, until I dropped my bombshell.
I wonder what he thought of me? I always thought I was a good judge of character, and if that was true, I would not have misjudged my friend, or sullied his character, or tarnished his good name. I am not in my first flush of youth, but even then with all my experience of life, I still got it wrong. The old saying is still true. You point your finger at someone, and there are three pointing back at you! My friend was gracious and forgave me, as a good Christian should, and I am very thankful, but I am now more concerned at my own initial reaction to believe the worst, before I had all the information. I was not as gracious as my friend. So the next time I am faced with a similar situation, I will think twice, and look for the good, before jumping to the wrong conclusion. Can I please ask that you do the same for me, should I ever disappoint you? May God help us all!
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