NorthStar Community Daily Devotional

May 14 - Brutal Honesty

Scripture focus: I could go on and on, but I've run out of time. There are so many more— Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets....Through acts of faith, they toppled kingdoms, made justice work, took the promises for themselves. They were protected from lions, fires, and sword thrusts, turned disadvantage to advantage, won battles, routed alien armies. Women received their loved ones back from the dead. There were those who, under torture, refused to give in and go free, preferring something better: resurrection. Others braved abuse and whips, and, yes, chains and dungeons. We have stories of those who were stoned, sawed in two, murdered in cold blood; stories of vagrants wandering the earth in animal skins, homeless, friendless, powerless—the world didn't deserve them!—making their way as best they could on the cruel edges of the world. Hebrews 11:32-38 (The Message)

You don't get to choose how you're going to die. Or when.
You can only decide how you're going to live. Now.

Joan Baez

When I was a child, we didn't go to church often. I loved summers at my grandparents' home, where I'd get to go to Sunday School, drink white grape juice and munch on stale saltine crackers, get my cheeks pinched by little ladies who wore big hats and white gloves, and best of all – listen to the bible stories. It came as quite a shock to find out that David, the slayer of Goliath, a man after God's own heart, and a great king, was also a murderer and adulterer. They didn't teach me this in my classes. The argument could be made that I missed the lesson where they talked about David's limitations. But I suspect that's not the case. It's been my experience that believers struggle with brutal honesty when it comes to the ways of God. We like all our stories to have happy endings as a way of confirming the rightness of our decision to trust in God. You know how it goes – I was lost, then found, now life is fine.

But how does that kind of storytelling benefit the believer whose story sounds more like a Rocky Horror movie? What about the faithful, who remain faithful AND experience abuse and whips and chains and dungeons? I know it is confusing! But part of growing up in our salvation involves learning how to accept the limitations of the human capacity to understand the ways of the Lord. It requires us to abandon the notion that we must rewrite God's history in order to make coming to believe a more attractive and palatable experience.

Skill set #12: Develop the ability to be brutally honest with ourselves, and gently truthful with others. This requires taking a risk. We make the decision to trust that God is good and loves unconditionally, even if there are people who are suffering. It's confusing, but denial isn't an option.

Recommended reading: Deuteronomy 20-22

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