REFLECTIONS
March 4, 2012
 
 
"If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
John 8:31-32
 
 
Grateful for the Truth
 
Anxiously we had waited for the doctor to emerge through the door of the operating room. But when that moment came we could tell from the look in his eyes that the message he had for us was not one we wanted to hear nor was it one he wanted to deliver. His message described the reality of a life situation. His message was truth, though it fell heavy on our hearts to hear it. His message was truth though it fell heavy on his heart to tell it.
Truth is not always what we want to hear. Yet we say we are in pursuit of truth and profess to honor nothing less. But all too often truth carries a sting at its side. Of course, not all truth comes with pain. It can provide joy to one and upset to another. Truth does not promise to be without pain, and it is the sting that sometimes comes with it that causes us to avoid the truth or to deny it when we hear it.
Truth is not always what we want to tell either. Just as we don’t want to feel pain, neither do we want to deliver it to someone else. Sometimes the truth can be painful to the party telling it. But truth is better told than withheld.
Just as truth can have a sting, it can also bring relief. Jesus said, “I am the Truth.” And He told us, “…the truth will set you free.” The burdens we carry are bundled in uncertainties and untruths. Truth clears the path and lightens the load.
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest,” Jesus said. “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matt 11:28-30)
As we look back today on those final days of Mom’s life remembering the message we heard and the emotions we felt, we were grateful for the truth. The doctor’s message that day was not easy for him to deliver. He knew that his message carried emotional pain. Yet, as hard as it was for us to hear, the truth made clear the path we had before us. The fog was cleared and uncertainty taken away. It was a reality of life that faced us. And while we had prayed for something different, the truth offered a clear path for the days ahead. And we walked those days in a manner that only truth would have ever allowed.
We found Truth himself by our sides; and in him we found rest for our souls.
 
You are the light of the world,
RichardÌ

www.reflectingthesavior.org


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