Urgency

I feel an urgency to speak the truth.
I think that the reason the body of Christ is lacking in maturity is because we want to be nice.
We think that if we hurt someone's feelings that we are being mean.
Sometimes, hurting someone's feelings is the nicest thing we can do.

I am not talking about giving people a piece of your mind.
I am talking about giving people a hand mirror so they can look at themselves
and see what others see.
I am talking about speaking the truth in love
and taking the risk of losing one's reputation for being kind.

Why do we want people to think we are nice, anyway?
Is it because we want them to like us?
If that is the case, then sometimes we are nice because we are selfish.
We don't want to rock the boat.
We want to keep the peace.
We want to be safe.

But the time is running out.
I am not sure if it's my time that's running out
or if it's the church's time that's running out
or if it's humanity's time that's running out.
I just know that I have to act now.
But I think you do too.

It's time to grow up.
It's time to be bold.
It's time to lay down our lives for each other
and speak the truth as best we know how
with all of the courage and love we can gather
from the Spirit of God living inside us.
I want to do this for you.
I want you to do this for me.

I feel like I've taken a high dive off a
'dare to tell the truth' cliff several times lately.
I am in deep and I am wet.
But my heart is pounding hard and I am alive-
not safe and not sorry.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"More faithful are the wounds of a friend
than the kisses of an enemy,"
said a wise man one day.