Real estate can be a tricky investment. All
it takes is one really bad neighbor and the value of all the properties in the
area can take a dive. If they don’t maintain their house and it is near the
beginning of the development, or it sits right next to your property, says to
potential buyers that these houses are to be avoided.
Even if you have a home owners association,
it can take years to get resolution in court. So our neighbors make a
difference.
And it is not just the way they keep their
property. If their personality or lack of interpersonal skills are extreme,
that bad attitude can bubble over. A neighbor can get a bad reputation and it
spreads. As soon as you enter the neighborhood people you meet warn you about “the
neighbor” and their attitude.
Our verses today touch on relationships in a
neighborhood. It makes no sense to put down a neighbor. Bad-mouthing another
isn’t good for either of the parties. It even ruins your reputation. If you are
willing to talk about that person behind their back, maybe you are talking
about me behind my back!
Just because we know something about another
person doesn’t mean we have to spread that knowledge. The smart thing to do is
to keep my mouth shut. I don’t have to spread what I know. I can protect their
reputation, even if they are trying to ruin it.
This applies to information that is shared
in confidence. We should be able to keep a secret. That lesson has been in the
news in recent years. Secrets are meant to be kept secret. If you have a
security clearance, you understand this concept.
When I worked at a previous job I came in
contact with very secret government information. But I didn’t have a high
enough clearance to see the documents. So any time I came into the room, all
the information had to be covered until I passed through the area. So I would
see piles of documents with a cover sheet on top that read “Top Secret”. All
the bulletin boards would be draped with a cover, and all the safes would be
closed.
Keeping secrets is important. But some
people just can’t turn of the flow of information. They thrive on telling
stories about other people. And they are almost never positive stories. Maybe
we should become positive gossips, always telling good things about what others
are doing, always focusing on the successes. What a difference that would make
in our world!