Truth or Dare?
Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me!
Truth
or Dare?
A gaggle
of boys and girls gather in a circle on the floor. A girl’s eyes laugh through
the rims of her glasses as she asks, “Truth or dare?” The unsuspecting victim
chooses truth. The assailant flies the question and it hits its mark. Cheeks
redden, a voice stammers, and inevitably the victim must do the dare for the
truth is apparently too hard to tell. Why are we so afraid to tell the truth?
Why would we rather play the jester than tell people how we really feel?
Because the crowd is watching, and we fear their disdain. We fear the loss of
friendships. We fear being alone. Fear--it provokes us to many sins. Over the past year, I have been forced to
make the difficult decision between telling the truth and living the dare. The
choices I made, though difficult, were worth it in the end.
The
Devil’s Dare
The dare
is the alternative to truth. It is an alternative I have been tempted to take
when telling the truth, to myself and
others, seemed too terrible to bare. Satan tempts us to play the game and to
just make believe that the sin we see is not an issue. He tells us not to rock
the boat and wants us to ignore the fact that the ship is sinking. And
sometimes we listen because we are terrified of drowning alone. We overlook sinful behavior because we fear living
a life overlooked and unnoticed. We claim
bad friends for fear of having no friends. But Paul warns us of this behavior,
“But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of
brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater,
reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.” (1 Corinthians
5:11) Don’t let Satan trick you into thinking ignoring someone’s sin is the
loving thing to do. It won’t be good for them, and it certainly won’t be good
for you.
Dare
to Choose Truth
Jesus said
to his disciples, “Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke
him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in
the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive
him.”(Luke 17:3-4) Rebuke is most
certainly not one of my “spiritual gifts.” I don’t like conflict, and I don’t
like confronting people with their sin, especially when I really care about the
people in question. In my experience, rebuke
rarely leads to repentance. I wish that it did so I could joyfully extend my
forgiveness. Instead, telling
the truth often results in the accusation that I am intolerant, judgmental,
and/or unloving. These kinds of accusations come not only from the person in
sin but from mutual friends. Friendships end. Reconciliation is far from sight.
I find no
help from the silent observers and the advocates of the adversary circled
around me. They have chosen the dare. The birds of a ruffled feather flocked
together, and I was left feeling quite alone because I had chosen truth. Jesus,
the embodiment of Truth itself, reminds me in times of doubt, “Blessed are you when people hate
you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account
of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your
reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.” Today, I
rejoice that I dared to choose truth.
Very thoughtful post.
ReplyDeleteAnd along that line, Jesus does tell us that we will be rejected of men, as he was. Jesus never promised that being a Christian would be a joy ride, he even said to consider carefully before following him, because the cost is heavy, and He only wants those that are willing to pay that cost.
"Instead, telling the truth often results in the accusation that I am intolerant, judgmental, and/or unloving." <<<THIS. A thousand times, this. We're called to lovingly correct one another with God's Word, but how can we when so many people take it as a personal attack even when it's done in the most loving and private way?
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