Rainy Days and Mondays

Karen Carpenter sang that rainy days and Mondays always got her down, but that is not normally the case for me. This Monday was an exception. On Monday, I got a weird message on Facebook from a former Preceptor of mine. When I realized it was junk and deleted it, it was too late, now MY account had been hijacked. Messages went out to everyone of my contacts with the possibility of infecting every single one who simply open it up to see what the message was about. On top of that, I was not feeling well and couldn't even work to fix the problem.

Well, I think the problem with Facebook is fixed (at least I hope so) and I am no longer feeling sick. Now it is time to reflect on what happened and how it relates to our Christian walk. Amy will tell you that's just what I do--I try to relate everyday things to our Christian walk in order to find ways to communicate the Gospel to others.

I received the message that started the whole problem from one person. The message was then sent to my 86 friends on Facebook (yes, I don't have as many as most people!) Then, any of these people who opened the message are potentially the next round to spread it to those people they have as their friends. One bad message could have affected 100's or 1000's of people by the end of just one day. The biggest problem for me was that it made ME look like I was sending the messages and some people were actually mad at me (until they settled down and realized I was a victim of fraud, not some mass spammer!)

How many people's reputation is ruined by people who get only some of the facts and then run off to tell other people (while making just a FEW embellishments). These people in turn go out and do the same thing and soon a good person has everything they do questioned. You have seen that and so have I. As Christians, I urge everyone everywhere to be quick to listen and SLOW to speak. It is Biblical, and it just might keep us from hurting innocent people!

P.S. Other than the Facebook thing, this is not really about me in particular, except that I have seen good people hurt by innuendo and false allegations from so-called Christian people and it has to stop!