Switched Keys

After reading this message you must send this message to 10 other people and the person that sent it to you within 3 hours. If you do this you will receive unbelievably good luck. If you don't your hair will fall out and you will lose all of your friends.

You may have read that at the bottom of messages from Aunt Betty and Uncle Bob. Often they contain stories of people who experienced good things when they sent the message or who had bad things happen. Those messages are so unbelievable that they don't justify a hoax warning. But many people believe them or say "it could happen."

The irony is that the stories or poems that accompany these warnings are usually things that would make you feel good inside. They make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Of course that's not the problem. I read them. Occasionally I might share them but I don't distribute them. That distribution makes them just about as bad as viruses and hoaxes.

These compulsory "warm and fuzzies" take bandwidth and take time to respond to. Another thing is that most individual users who send these messages include the email addresses of all their friends in the To: field in effect publishing them for spammers. Even without the distribution the idea that a message carries so much weight is humorous and as ridiculous as so many chain letter schemes that I've seen.

There is however a message that promises a lot more than these warm and fuzzies and I believe it. Only the message of the gospel has that kind of power. That message also has the most believable stories to confirm it. The best thing is you don't have to bug all your friends before you can enjoy the benefits. Repent and put your trust in Jesus and He will be faithful.