Reputation matters, and when our reputation is dragged through the mud life can feel very painful indeed.
I’m not referring to times when we have fallen into sin and people begin to see us differently – that, whilst painful, is often a necessary part of true repentance and restoration. Nor those times when verbal abuse is part of a wider context of coercion or control. I mean those moments when people say things about us that are unjust or unfair. That professional slur, that inaccurate piece of gossip, that foundationless accusation – they cut to the core and leave us reeling with hurt.
Maybe it’s the helplessness that feels the worst, but there are other emotions beside. There can be fear, as we ponder what the longer-term implications might be; anger, as we see injustice progressing seemingly unchecked; and despair, as events keep going in a direction that feels so deeply wrong. Friends tend towards either telling us to ‘let it go’ or ‘fight for your rights’. Rarely do either feel like viable ways to proceed.
