Honesty is often interpreted as meanness. If I speak the truth, if I say what I really feel or what I really think, then I'm cold, hardhearted. So, to keep the peace, I tend to camouflage my real feelings and thoughts. Sometime I'm succeed, most of the time I don't.
Truth pushes its way out. It is uncomfortable in captivity, uncomfortable wearing camouflaged clothing. Truth is uncomfortable with compromise, political correctness, blame-shifting, minimizing, dodging, side-stepping, denying, hiding, or lying. Truth avoids shadows; it detests darkness. Truth demands the light.
Why does truth have a bad rap? A number of reasons: truth hurts; we can't or won't handle the truth; we don't want our life-lie exposed. So, we settle for snippets of shaded-truth cushioned with goose-down.
Jesus, John declared, came "from the Father, full of grace and truth" John 1:14. Grace and truth perfectly balanced in his life, attitude, thoughts, actions, words. But truth didn't always come across as polite, nice, or even compassionate.
Jesus was invited into a home in Tyre. He was barely inside when a woman who had a "disturbed daughter" came and knelt at his feet, begging for help. The woman was Greek and asked Jesus to come with her to help her daughter.
Jesus said to the woman, "Stand in line and take your turn. The children get fed first. If there is any left over the dogs get it" Mark 7:27. Sounds abrupt, rude, and offense to me.
But the woman refused to be put off, "Of course, Master. But don't the dogs under the table get scraps dropped by the children?"
Grace and Truth responded, "You're right! On your way! Your daughter is no longer disturbed. The demonic affliction is gone." The woman went home and found her daughter healed, the torment gone for good.
Truth isn't for sissies. Truth hurts before it heals.
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