We live in a culture that tells you what you want to hear. If I don’t like TV show I’m watching, I flip the channel. If I don’t like what I’m hearing, I tune it out.
If we’re not careful we fall into the trap of transforming truth into a preference.
Why do I think Truth is Risky?
Because the truth, by definition excludes. We live in a world of inclusion. We don’t want to offend anyone. In our attempt to corral every thought and action into a world of inclusion and acceptance, we reject truth to our own detriment.
I observe people flatly rejecting the truth of reality as if it did not exist.
Imagine a doctor telling his patient, “You have cancer. We need to do something about it immediately or it’s going to kill you.” To which the patient replies, “I don’t believe in cancer!”
Does the patient’s rejection or non-belief in cancer remove the reality of the disease from his body? Of course not!
Whether or not you ‘believe’ something is true does not change reality.
- The truth is risky because when you reveal the truth for someone, they can decide to walk away from you.
- The truth is risky because once you tell it, someone can choose to reject it and all you can do is watch the consequences fall on them.
- The truth can be painful and hard to take. But, you can speak the truth in love. Sometimes the truth hurts the one telling it almost as much as the one hearing it. We can lovingly speak truth into a persons life, but they must know you really care first.