Truth-telling

Truth is a tough thing. My truth is not yours, and probably neither of ours are "true."

...But our truths sure feel real, don't they? And that feeling can very neatly obscure reason. Cloud judgment. Impair communication.

I find I have fewer and fewer truths as I age, and though that would seem to make the remaining set more sure and precious to me, I'm not very inclined to talk about them. Maybe because I don't want to fight over these few truths I still have. Or be shown how they might not jive with one another. I sure don't want to feel verbally pushed & shoved by a conflicting, so that my ire rises up and I start to, with angry words, defend mine.

When I really get reflective, I know I don't want my truths to hurt people -- especially other Christians with whom I simply disagree. I haven't figured out, yet, how to really, really believe something, and have that something be quite different than someone else's something, and neither compromise my truth nor disrespect theirs.

Our church is entering a time when we're going to have to swap truths with each other, pretty openly and maybe dangerously. We're going to disagree. And we're long overdue for some public truth-telling.

I pray that something glorious happens to us in this process -- which is bound to get bumpy, so smudged and pockmarked with all our humanity. I pray we become more than our everyday selves as we weigh decisions for others. I pray that we have been called for such a time as this. I pray that I can be a speaker of truths that are not my own hoarded, petty thoughts -- that are not of me at all. I pray that you, God, make me an instrument of thy will.

I pray that something eternal and indivisible and holy wraps all around us as we weigh where to go, what to do next.

And I pray we can see, unclouded, the only Truth that will set us free.