Let the Truth Be Told
Mom & I watched The Chosen S3 E6 recently, and there is a scene with Tamar & Mary and there is some unspoken conflict between the women. Each of these women is following Christ, but they look at each other through their own fleshly lens.
How many times have I been guilty of sitting on the pew and looking through the eyes of the flesh at someone else's worship or someone else's life for the 2 or 3 hours I see them each week, and thinking, "Their life is so much better than mine" or "Their relationship to God is better than mine". It’s like my eyes glaze over and everyone is innocent and I’m guilty.
“Lie number one you're supposed to have it all together
And when they ask how you're doing
Just smile and tell them, ‘Never better’.
Lie number 2 everybody's life is perfect except yours
So, keep your messes and your wounds
And your secrets safe with you behind closed doors.”
-Matthew West, Truth Be Told
It is no mistake that both lies are sung in this song because they seem to go hand-in-hand. Why do I say that? Because I’ve lived them; not realizing them for a lie or not willing to admit it to myself.
When I started attending a church in March 2005, I had not darkened a church door on a regular basis in 15 years, and it was the first time in my adult years I had done so. That church had it’s roots going back to the late 1960’s, but the current pastor had only taken it over 6 months prior. Fast-forward to October 2017, and I left that church for a 6-month-old start-up church called True Life or TLC for short. Our roughly 4.5-acre campus, which has been a couple of other churches prior, has parts of the building that was built in the late 1800’s.
When I compare my life today and during the last 5¼ years to the previous 12 years and 7 months, I see growth. I feel like those first years I was a tree planted in a pot and grown from a seed, but 5¼ years ago it was time to remove me from the pot and plant me in fertile soil where I could grow some roots. It’s like the Crape Myrtle we planted when we moved here in 1997, we bought it from the store, took it out of it’s pot and it’s outlasted every other plant and tree we’ve planted, but it grew and then a few years ago we trimmed it back and now it’s twice as big, stretching above the roofline of the house.
I was raised Southern Baptist, but now going to a Pentecostal church, I was green, and everything was new. My upbringing had, to a point, laid the foundations for me to build upon. Today, I am surrounded by friends and people that care and are invested in me becoming the best human and Christian I can be. Today, I’m more willing to talk about God, the Bible, and my testimony with people whether through social media, e-mail, my Blog, church newsletter, or with people I face at work. I wasn’t always that way. What changed? I am loved; God has been loving me through His people; despite my brokenness, despite their brokenness, and because God has loved me, I can freely love others, myself included.
This is where I think connecting to people is so important... If we get to know them then the imagined façade of perfection melts away and we can see that they are just as human as us; full of failures and flaws.
“I don't know why it's so hard to admit it, when being honest is the only way to fix it.” “So let the truth be told.”
- Matthew West, Truth Be Told
Affiliate Link Included:
Get 15% off your 1st month when you join The Encourager's Heart in starting 2023 in your own ritual toward better health. Ritual offers multivitamins for men & women, protein shakes, prenatal care, & gut health products delivered to your door on a monthly basis. Just use this link to start today.
Thank you for being a subscriber to The Encourager's Heart Blog.
It is because of readers like yourself, that make writers like me want to write.
Thank You!
I'm praying that 2023 will be a year of drawing closer to Jesus for you and that you'll draw closer to the ones you love.
If you've been encouraged by this blog, please feel free to share.