There are times when telling the truth is hard:
~When telling the truth will bring us our deserved punishment.
~When in telling the truth we must reveal our vulnerability or stupidity (use your own word for it).
~When truth telling is going add the igniting spark to overly charged dynamite.
~When telling the truth will hurt someone deeply.
~When truth telling, however just, may bring a response of anger and cost us (job, friends, etc.)
~When one knows that telling the truth is only my perspective of the truth, and that another will argue and interpret the same circumstance in different ways.
~When it brings back painful memories.
~When it is falling on deaf ears.
Can you think of times when telling the truth has been hard for you?
Jesus in the gospel of John talks a lot about truth. Of course, one of his most familiar statement from that gospel is: I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
Jesus also says: And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.
Certainly Jesus reveals the truth about God and about God’s passionate self-giving love for God’s children. Jesus reveals the truth about me and who I am: weak, sinful, precious, finite, gifted–all of these things in one. He reveals the truth about what he has called me to do and be, which means that there’s no need to put on a show for him, just be my honest, truthful self.
And discerning the truth from what others are saying can be a challenge as well. Who’s telling the truth? Who’s slanting the facts? In a culture that doesn’t seem to value truth anymore, I can at least count on Jesus’ truth.
Truth telling is still hard. I’m truth telling this week, and would like to run away from it. But if Jesus is where the truth is, and I believe he is, then that’s a pretty compelling reason to stick around the truth. And if truth sets us free, and we all want to be free, I might even be able to say the truth out loud, come what may.
Have any truth telling coming up? Prayers are with you.
jnkuebler says
Thank you.
Joseph says
Wow, a very tough topic. Good luck this week. It is a struggle.
I went the struggling route, of truth, the other month…. It cost me a client, a very good client. I figured it would. Yet, if I would have let things go, it would have been wrong by my faith in God. Doing what is right by CHRIST is what counts most. I am sure HE will provide for me. I have started to see his work already. All around it is the best decision. It lifted a heavy burden.
Daisy says
Excellent points about truth telling. Yes, it’s coming up for me this week also. I pray that we all learn to speak the truth with love.
Mich
Elaine Dent says
Am praying for all of you this week…
Joseph says
Good Point Daisy, speaking the truth with Love. The tone / manner in which we say things, sometimes is just as important as what we are saying.
Elaine Dent says
I hadn’t thought of that, Joe, but of course you right, especially in the context of truth-telling. And that’s as hard as speaking the truth sometimes.