Tell the Truth and Forget about it!

Scripture Reading: Zechariah 8:16-17, Ephesians 4:15, Proverbs 12:19, 22

So it was late Friday night and I was out with my friend Ryan who was older and really cool. We met with two girls and crammed into his Cherry Red Ford Pinto. Before this, I was on my way to my friend Sean’s house to spend the night, but hanging out with Ryan and these to girls seemed way cooler. I called Sean and gave him some lame excuse about how I wouldn’t be able to get to his house that night until much later that night.

The night wasn’t anything special, Ryan and I did what we always did, we rode our skateboards around empty parking lots, grinding curbs, hand rails and trying to clear gaps that seemed big to us. The only thing different about this night was that we had an audience. We had just met these two girls in a supermarket parking lot and apparently they had nothing better to do than watch us skate.

I ended up getting to Sean’s house really late that night. He was already asleep and I fell asleep with out a word. The next afternoon Sean was eating lunch and asked “What happened last night?” Without pause I lied to him about where I was and what I did. The truth was that I didn’t want him there because I was with Ryan and two really cute girls. ” With a smile on his face, all he said to me was, “Oh that’s cool. With that said, I headed down the hall with a knot in the pit of my stomach.

I turned and walked back into the kitchen and told Sean the truth about the night before. “I’m sorry,” I told him, “I was out with Ryan and two girls we met and were skating in the Stater Bros Parking lot and dude I totally ditched you and am totally sorry.”
“It’s ok.” He told me, I knew you were lying to me.” “You did?” I asked, “Sure!” he said with a smile. “Then why did you act like you believed me?” I asked, he told me, “It really looked like you wanted me to believe you so I played along.” My heart sank even further into my stomach and I got little teary eyed as I realized at that moment the kind of friend Sean was to me.

Few friends would take it on the chin and smile at you for the sake of you feeling better about yourself, but Sean was that kind of a friend. He was also the one who would tell me when I was acting like a jerk. He seemed to know just how to call me out and be a real friend to me. The truth was something he never hid from me, or anyone for that matter. I knew I could trust him to do what was best for me, whether it was telling me the brutal truth or pretending to believe me when I was not truthful and letting my conscience do its own work. There is so much freedom in never telling a lie. I read it most simply put like this,

“If you always tell the truth, you never have to remember anything.”
-Mark Twain

Tact, backed with the truth, is all it takes to speak the truth in love. It is an art that we as Christ followers need to learn to master. Speaking the truth in love will not only free up our minds from many of life’s worries, but also set others free in more ways than we can imagine.

Questions:
Are you the type of friend who tells your friend the truth even when it hurts?

Do you know people who never seem to tell it like it is?

Which is better, flattery that makes a person feel good, or truth that hurts?

Exercise: Be sure to tell the truth especially in the little things. Tell it straight and wrap it in love to others. Invite someone into your life this week to call you out in blunt ways, to tell you the truth, even if it stings. It will free you to focus on what needs to change in your own life and free others from having to keep things from you.

Prayer: Ask God to help you to be kind to others, to always make you ready with the truth wrapped into a kind word for someone who need one, especially when the truth hurts.