Earlier this week, I received a phone call from my brother-in-law, Ben, who lives in Tennessee. Ben had received a call from his brother, Dave, in Florida who had made an interesting discovery.
Dave had been making an effort to find my parents' address on WhitePages.com. He typed "Roark" into the name field, and their ZIP code into the address field. He found what he was looking for, but also came across an additional entry with my name listed.
This in itself was not an interesting discovery since Kelly and I did indeed live and work in this same Tennessee town for two and one-half years. The intrigue begins with the job title listed under the entry with my name. It still had me listed as an employee of the West Fayetteville church of Christ, but with the job title listed as "false teacher" (click on the image above to see the screen capture).
Apparently, anyone with internet access is able to submit a name and job title. Dave was somewhat hesitant to let Ben call me with this piece of news, but being my best friend and brother-in-law (some say we were separated at birth), Ben knew exactly how I would take it: with great amusement.
Now, don't get me wrong...being labeled as a "false teacher" is no laughing matter -- especially if there is any validity to such an assertion. Understand, however, that when someone anonymously submits someone's name with that label to a website, that can be somewhat difficult to take seriously. It shows a genuine lack of character and courage, to say the least. And so, one might have to say in a situation as this, "consider the source."
While Ben and I were having a good chuckle over this, he asked if I could think of anyone who might be behind this. My answer was that I had only one or two guesses (after all, I'm not all that well-known!), but it would be impossible to say with any degree of certainty. Besides, I was not overly concerned with the situation in the first place.
Had this situation arisen in my younger days, I may have been hurt, angry, and on a mission to find the culprit. Now, at the advanced age of 30, I've found it much easier to keep situations like this in its proper perspective. For this, I give God the glory...
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Galatians 5:14-26, ESV
When we allow the Spirit of God to operate and mold our lives through the Scriptures, the difference will be plainly evident.
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