Tell the Truth

Yesterday’s little taste of real from my life was a defining moment for me. It continues to mold and change me today. Here are two truths that I still cling to:

1. Tell the truth. Don’t pretend that all is well when it just is not. If you are wrestling inwardly and don’t know how to escape your crazy, tell someone about it. Be it a counselor, a trusted friend, or a listening mentor. Say it out loud because not doing so will only make your problems, your heartbreaks, your loneliness, and your crazy feel bigger than they actually are. And if you are on the receiving end of someone else’s crazy, it’s okay to speak the truth in love. You can say, “This is going to be okay. You are not crazy. There are far worse things. And have you told God about it?” You can say it out loud as long as you do it in a loving way that comes from your desire for him or her to know healing!

2. Tell God about it. For the longest time, I carefully scripted my prayer times to include things that I knew I should pray for. I allowed for sadness, joy, brokenness, and goodness before the feet of Jesus but never anger. Ever. This crippled me. The strangest thing happened after I expressed my anger about God TO God – my faith grew because He reminded me that He is good and I cannot possibly understand the vastness of His goodness. This is a thing that I continue to learn but I never would have begun that process if I hadn’t expressed that I wasn’t quite sure about it to begin with. Jacob, David, Job, Peter – they all wrestled with God. It’s good to question but you need to also be prepared for an answer that requires a great deal of humility on your part.

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And thus sprung forth my passion for the truth in every area of my life. I began to learn, though, that what I see as truth isn’t always the whole truth – and being honest with myself and others isn’t always about feeling better. For example, just because I believe my life is tragically difficult does not mean that it actually is – being real does not mean being cranky. You have to pour your “real” through the strainer of God’s Word so you can get rid of all the stuff that doesn’t align with it. More about that tomorrow!

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