WHY TROLLS TROLL

From a post today by Jon Acuff:

“Do you know why strangers rage at each other online and are so quick to be angry and offended these days?

Because their passion has no other outlet. When you refuse to deal in joy, you don’t quit being emotional; you just funnel all that fury somewhere else.

Many a troll was born from the heartache of a goal he dared not finish.

Maybe a troll is just someone who lost to perfectionism so many times he gave up on his own goals and decided to tear down someone else’s.

Does your passion have a healthy outlet? If so, what is it?”

This is so true. I’ll be honest, when I see certain friends on FB lashing out about or arguing with what someone has said online, or caustically announcing something someone in their life did or said to them in person, for all the world to see and jump on their bandwagon, it breaks my heart.

If these same people would take those emotions and re-channel them into a healthy outlet, as Jon says, it would change everything. Everything!

For one thing, it takes a whole different set of emotional tools to go positive rather than negative.

It also prevents bringing others down with you…as others, in their struggle to channel their OWN emotions positively, will feel like they’ve really done something when they dive into your negativity with you.

Romans 14:13, in the Message Paraphrase, says this:

“Here’s what you need to be concerned about: that you don’t get in the way of someone else, making life more difficult than it already is.”

In the Living Bible Translation, it puts it this way:

“…don’t criticize each other anymore. Try instead to live in such a way that you will never make your brother stumble by letting him see you doing something he thinks is wrong.”

And for anyone who is OGKJV:

“Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.”

Can’t add anything to that.

So just be careful what you say, how you say it and who you say it to.

One more verse that I attempt to live my life by every day.

Philippians 4:8 (LB):

“Fix your thoughts [and your words] on what is true and good and right. Think about [and say] things that are pure and lovely, and dwell on the fine, good things in others. Think about all you can praise God for and be glad about.”

Make this your goal every single day. If you do this, soon you’ll find that it becomes the normal pattern of your life.