Telling the truth

A few weeks back a group of seasoned European youth leaders met in Barcelona. It is always hard leading such a group together because egos can limit how deep you actually get. So we took a radical approach, and decided the first session would be sharing our biggest failures! It was utterly liberating. As Jesus said: The truth shall set you free.

Why are we so scared of truth? We spend so much of our time avoiding it, that we finally reach a point where we wouldn’t recognise truth if it bit us on the butt. “What is truth?” said the tired politician, not realising his cynical aside would reverberate through 2000 years of history. It has been the question for every age but ours has a particularly peculiar take on it.

What is truth? The tolerant European says it is what each person wants it to be. The patriotic American can be more dogmatic provided it doesn’t impact homeland security or their forces overseas. The African is the most dogmatic though not necessarily the best informed. Truth in Australia is often exaggerated but normally with a twinkle in the eye. And anyone who says he knows what an Asian really thinks about anything, let alone truth, is lying. But those are the common stereotypes, not truth?

Then again in the Christian world, its as bad. “Its all good, praise God!” is the cry, when obviously it isn’t. Jesus positively encourages us to mourn… just like He did! And Biblical characters are brutely honest. If we can’t be honest, who can be? Truth can set us free. In fact if only Pilate could have seen it: the truth was standing right there before his eyes. When Jim Carey in Liar Liar was forced to tell the truth at all times, his life was turned upside down. Ours would be too. They would be shaken and probably fall apart. But then from a place of brokenness, our Father could rebuild us as we were meant to be, or as He puts it: righteous and true.

The honesty session I was a part of in Barcelona truly did set us free. It allowed us to be real with one another, touch real issues and know a real touch from God. I’m now in Wales meeting one of those guys from Holland, dreaming dreams from a place of trust, we’d never have reached so quickly if we hadn’t dropped our guard.

The truth is the question we need to ask is not: What is truth? Truth is out there. The true question is: Do we want to know it? “Truth”, said Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men: “You can’t handle the truth.” But what if we could? How would a reality of faith change our lives for starters?