Facing the Unpleasant Truth

Enjoying the CA heat!

How do you do when you face an unpleasant truth?  We’ve been reading the book “Holes” with our older son.  In the book, Stanley, the protagonist, has a number of times when he justifies to himself his less than righteous actions. “I need to let my friend dig my hole for me so that I can have strength later on to teach him to read.” Stanley tells himself.  It seems so innocent and logical.  But later, after a number of bad consequences come from this decision we see Stanley come face to face with the unpleasant truth—he was being lazy.  It’s not easy to hear, and yet we root for Stanley because, he has realized an unpleasant truth and now he can make a change.  He can do what’s better and what’s right.

How do you do when it comes to facing an unpleasant truth?  The reality is most of us, like Stanley, don’t do very well with it.  We tend to hide, equivocate, defend or deny.  Basically, we do anything we can to reject it.  We don’t like unpleasant truths.  And yet, time and time again, it is only when we come face to face with these things that we have any change; any real growth.  It’s as if the unpleasant truth is a chain that holds us fast.  We cannot move on, we cannot get beyond it, until the chain is removed.  Sometimes it’s more like a thorn, deep in the sole of the foot.  We make such slow progress, and each step is painful.  Each step drives that thorn in further.  If only we could remove the thorn, be healed and walk normally.

In the past few weeks here in the US we have been brought face to face with a most unpleasant truth.  Racial injustice is still a major problem in our country.  Many of us who were inclined to hide, equivocate, deny or defend actions, seem unable to in light of recent events.  We cannot say it’s a problem of the past.  We cannot deny that these things happen.  We cannot even claim ignorance.  We are faced with a most unpleasant truth.  We see the chain that binds our country.  We feel the thorn in the sole.  What will we do?  Will we reject this most unpleasant truth?  Or will this be a moment when we face it and make a change?

This same sort of scenario is playing out with an island friend of mine over social media.  We have had a long, ongoing debate over the truth and trustworthiness of our two faiths.  My friend has many negative things to say about our faith, but he has never read our books.  The truth there is too unpleasant to him.  He refuses to read it.  Rather than examine the evidence, he chooses to hide, deny and reject.  Now our discussion has taken a new tack.  Just last week he asked me if I could give him even one example of something bad the leader of his faith had ever done.  I was faced with a hard question.  Is this the time to introduce my friend to an unpleasant truth?

Normally we avoid talking about some of these unpleasant truths.  If you want to make friends with someone, you don’t start out by telling them their hero is a villain.  The friendship will be dead before it starts.  But true friendship can handle unpleasant truths.  As it says in Proverbs, “Wounds from a friend can be trusted.”  So with much prayer and research to make sure my points were based on sound evidence, I gave my friend a long list of unpleasant truths about his hero.  I can only wait and see what will happen now.  I can’t help but think that in the same way I have presented my friend with a number of unpleasant truths about his hero, we as Americans have been presented, in the forms of videos footage and protests, with a number of unpleasant truths about our country.  We wait to see what will happen now.

Father's Day breakfast

When we talk about our faith on the islands we often talk of the Kingdom of Light.  It is more than a poetic way of talking about it.  Unpleasant truths are always hidden, but nothing can be hidden in the light.  Unpleasant truths are like chains that hold us back and the keyhole is hidden in the darkness.  They are like a thorn in the foot that hobbles our stride, but no one can see the thorn to take it out.  The shame of that chain, or the gruesomeness of that thorn feel like more than we can bear.  But what relief, what joy, what possibility, to be freed from the chain, to have the thorn removed.  We are set free.  If we only had the ability to see, then we would desire these things removed.  We would shout out for help, “Set me free from my chains!  Here is the keyhole.  Remove this thorn!  There it is, right there.”  But for that we need light.  How wonderful that in the Kingdom of Light, the unpleasant truths are exposed, the chains can be unlocked, and the thorns can be removed.  But we always have a choice.  Will we move into the light or hide in the darkness?  This is one of those times for my island friend.  This is one of those times for us as a nation.  Let him, let us, step into the light.  Make us free.  Make us whole. 

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our computer was returned to us completely fixed at no charge! What an unexpected blessing when we were anticipating a hefty fee! We had a few chances to reconnect with people this week (both on the islands and in CA) and already have a new number of Zoom meetings this week. We continue to be thankful for the technology that makes these connections possible. We thank God for Tom in honor of Father’s Day and for the wonderful father he is.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Please pray for our island friend and Tom’s continuing dialogue with him, as well as others on similar journeys. We have the opportunity to talk with the elders of a new teammate this week— pray for good communication as we begin that relationship, that it would lead to more people being invested in the work on the islands and for our new teammate to get the support that she will need. We’ve heard that life for many islanders have started to return to normal. Pray for our colleague that is working on a plan for leadership development as he tries to connect and collaborate with different groups.  As we pray for new teammates we also pray for teammates for two new teams hoping to start on the islands (one with a business focus and hoping for teammates from mainland Africa and the other a medical team on Clove Island).