Thinking Out Loud, Volume CDLXXIII

"I'm moving to Russia." I came home from school one day when I was in the first grade and made that announcement to my parents. On the school bus that day, some of my friends, other first and second graders, had been talking and one of them told us that Russia was going to bomb the United States, and only the people living in Russia would be spared. My mom and dad did their best to assure me that just wasn't true, but I informed them that had they been on my bus, they would be more in tune with what was about to happen. Over time I came to understand that I should be a little more skeptical of what other kids told me, although I still accepted everything any adult said as the absolute, indisputable gospel. It was not until I grew into adulthood that I began to realize that if I was not careful, even grownups would lead me astray. Now I've reached the point where there are certain people I would trust with my very life, but those who don't fall into that category, I may view their words by borrowing a phrase from President Reagan, "trust but verify." I like to refer to it as a "healthy skepticism." I reached my current frame of mind due to some embarrassing mistakes I made by trusting, then repeating, things I saw on my computer. Angie and I now have a little joke we use around our house: "I know it's true, because I saw it on Facebook." It doesn't matter what side of the political aisle you're on, there are those on your side who apparently just make up stories about the other side. I view such tactics as counterproductive, and the real trouble is, these stories grow with each telling. Unfortunately, this type of creative storytelling is not confined just to politics. One of the events where some of the most outrageous stories were being told and expanded was in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I don't have enough space to detail all of the outlandish tales being floated around during that time. I confronted one friend about a story she told me, telling her if those stories were true, the news media would've been all over it. When she responded by telling me we can't trust the news any more, I asked her where she got her story. She looked up the source of her information, and she had to admit it was from someone she had never heard of before, yet she was gullible enough to repeat it as truth. Do people sit around and make up these stories just for the fun of it? If I would repeat every story I heard or saw on Facebook, my friends would begin to lose trust in me and would start to disregard anything I might say. My credibility would be gone. It's sad for me to have to say this, but I believe people even do this regarding biblical prophesy, and then others believe it and blast it all over social media. When we hear stories like the mark of the beast has already begun in some countries, when there's absolutely no evidence that it's true, and we then repeat it as fact, we're harming the work of legitimate prophesy teachers. I don't want to be so harsh as to call someone a liar when they fully believe what they're telling me is true. I've been guilty of doing the same thing, but it humiliates me when I realize I've helped spread faulty information. The truth is, we can't take everything we hear, even from well-meaning friends, as gospel. I guess my primary purpose for talking about this topic today is just to remind us to verify the authenticity of any story before we share it with anyone else. A little dose of healthy skepticism is good medicine for us all. Preston Sent from my iPhone