“Raging waves of the sea, foaming out of their own shame;” excerpt from Jude 1:13.

Many of us often wonder how some can be so mean, so nasty and harsh to others whom they have never even met. Others who have not said or done anything wrong. Others who just happen to be on a social media platform or use one or more of those platforms to make a living, showcasing talents that are the envy of many and right there is the point.

I love to watch makeovers, it is just heartwarming to watch people who have been through rough patches in life be physically transformed through a compete change in hair, makeup and style giving them an entire new outlook on life because of that physical transformation.

Improving how they perceive themselves and improving self-esteem, helping them embrace new chapters, often later in life.

So, I do have a few YouTube favorites that are just incredibly skilled. and share those talents, completely free, with others, but I had noticed this past week that two of them had videos dealing with how they had been treated, and highlighting the mean, nasty, comments and personal attacks against them.

Even attacking the appearance of one tearful lady, who is beautiful by any standard. One person had attacked everything about her, specifically naming her eyes, her hair, her makeup, stating that it was all ugly.

Both pointed out the fact that others had told them not to listen to it and not take it heart but that it they just couldn’t ignore it and the hurt that came with each vicious comment.

For the most part none of us can, we are social beings and unfortunately the opinions of others affect our life, our mental well-being and can even affect our health through the anxiety and undo stress caused.

Proverbs 12:18: ” There is that speaketh like the piercing of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.”

Those words do cut, they do pierce are our hearts and minds, and even our souls just as if a sword were driven through us.

Those who attack and criticize others while hiding behind the anonymity of the world wide web and fake usernames. are only spewing out, which in old English terms can literally mean to vomit out, to spit out, as they spit out hatred and insults from their own shame.

Spewing out as a broken faucet the hatred and disgust they feel toward themselves at others they are envious and jealous of.

Song of Solomon 8:6: “…jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.”

Jealousy burns in unstable hearts until that hateful fire ignites an inferno of pain and hurt as sorrowful as death itself.

Literally killing another’s self-esteem, self-worth, and reputation through lies and mockery.

It is a virus that spreads through a colony, one person starts to spew and others with a twisted sense of acceptance start spewing that same poisonous hatred.

Off topic, but just as the constant use of the “F” word in our everyday life now, even children randomly spitting it out as everyday language. At the end of the day, the parents who have used it and thought it was so funny when the kids picked up, will be the ones held accountable to God in how they chose to raise the children whom God entrusted them with.

Constant bid to outdo one another in a completely fraudulent and disturbing game of social media one- upmanship.

Get those likes, get those reactions, get that attention no matter the cost to another.

Proverbs 27:4: “Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous: but who is able to stand before envy?”

Who? Who can stand before it, as it hurls insults and hatred against them?

Just as if you were to open a container to only find it had been shaken, think of it as shaken within itself, shaken with inferiority, shaken by self-loathing, shaken by the old green-eyed monster, shaken to the point that when it finally blows its top, it is spewing everywhere, the only choice to be made is to remove that container as far away as possible and once it has finished spewing, dispose of it.

Throw it completely out, it is useless. and anything in it that had at one time been beneficial has now been lost in that spew and cannot be recovered.

Back to Jude. Jude 1:12: “These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;”

When the someone tries to do something good there’s always someone there to come in with hatred and insults and criticisms just to try to destroy you and all that you are trying to accomplish, and this applies not only to ministry but also life in general.

People who will just watch or attend a function with the sole (and soul) purpose of nit-picking every aspect of it.

The good news is that you have the power to disconnect the water from a spewing faucet, you have the power to toss out an upset exploding beverage, you have the power to control for yourself what you will and will not tolerate in life.

Rid your life of anyone and anything that steals your peace and joy.

Turn them out and turn it off, no one needs it.

Proverbs 17:1: “Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full of sacrifices with strife.”

Ecclesiastes 4:6: “Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit (trouble and sorrow).”

Whatever you feel like you will lose, needs to be lost when it costs your peace, joy and health.

We will never change the opinions of haters, that is what they do and as a child of God you only need to concern yourself with his opinion of you.

Once you rid your life of the drama that only you can control, because God gives us freewill, why would he intervene if it’s a situation that we ourselves can walk away from?

He will protect and deliver us but when we are able to make changes in what we suffer we are expected to do so.

Isaiah 32:17: “And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.”

So please don’t continue to let others dictate your happiness and more importantly your value, because you are incredibly valuable to him who created you and never let anyone take that away.

Φλογιζω NBJ 2023/ Rev. N. Brown Johnson