SAY WHAT YOU SEE

I'm writing for Five Minute Friday and this week's prompt word is SAY.  

Recently, the phrase has come to me again and again, 'Say what you see'.

It's been a season of God telling me to speak truth to people.  Sometimes truth is hard to see and harder to say.  But it's harder if we don't tell people the truth.   It's harder when we don't say what's true and instead lead people to believe something about themselves or a situation that gives them a skewed perspective, often for many years.  

One instance I can think of is someone who was not been allowed to use her gifts in a ministry situation.    It was obvious that she had a certain gift in relating to certain type of people in a way that no one else could.   But she was shut down again and again.  And she got rejected and became bitter.  That bitterness spread to others, because she was still influential.   It could have been avoided if someone said what needed saying about her own immaturity and negativity and she was given an opportunity to repent and to grow.    That's hard stuff to say and it's hard for someone to hear, but surely that's better than the person spending years in frustration and rejection.   

....... looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled....  Heb 12:15

I've seen so much of this polite dishonesty over many years, in quite a few churches.   So many times people see something not right in someone's life, but won't say so and the person is never given an opportunity to grow and move forward.   

Sometimes, they don't say it because they're scared of the reaction they might get.

Sometimes they don't say it because of hierarchy.  

Sometimes they don't say it because they don't want to lose the relationship.  

sometimes they don't say it because they are conditioned to being ignored or invalidated

sometimes they don't say it because of cultural taboos

sometimes they don't say it because they don't want to hurt the person.

But if we don't speak a word in season, we do hurt them.  

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.

Like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold

Is a wise rebuker to an obedient ear.  Prov 25:11,12  

https://varnadorable.wordpress.com/2017/09/26/apples-of-gold/

We've been watching the series, The Chosen.  I have mixed feelings about it but that's for another day.  

One thing I love about it is that it reminds me that Jesus had the strength to say what He saw.  I'm sure there was much that He saw that He didn't say or perhaps that isn't recorded.   You can't spend three-plus years on the road with fisherman and broken people and not say a lot!!  

But so much of what He did say has been written down for our benefit.    His interactions with people in many and varied situations and crises always fascinate me.   I want to know the story behind the story, because it helps me to understand why He said what He said.    What He said He surprised, shocked, challenged, upset, taught and healed people.   

He was prepared to say 'repent' just as easily as He was prepared to say, 'I am willing, be healed'.   

He saw through polite, religious behaviour and was prepared to say that it was hypocrisy.   

He saw through sinful behaviour to the pain behind it and was prepared to say exactly what that person needed to hear, even if it upset others.  

What stops us from saying what people need to hear - a gentle rebuke or a word of encouragement, the truth about themselves or their situation?

I know some of the things that stop me.   And the Lord is working on that.  So many times, He tells me not to be a butter knife, not to soften the truth out of fear or cynicism.    

I see things differently to others.   We all see things from our own perspective, shaped by experience but also by Him, if we are immersed in His Word, and stay close to Him.

But, if we do not say what we see, someone will miss out on the truth they need to hear.   

I've had a lot of people say a lot of very helpful and healing things to me over the last few years, not all of it easy to hear, but very necessary.   

Jesus spoke the truth, with grace.    I want to be one who can say what she sees, with grace and truth, at the right time, as people need to hear it.    When we do that, people grow and grow up, and are able to walk in the light of the truth.  

But, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head - Christ - from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.  Eph 4:15,16

Truth be told

The truth is rarely told, no

I say, "I'm fine, yeah, I'm fine, oh, I'm fine, hey, I'm fine"

But I'm not, I'm broken

And when it's out of control I say it's under control

But it's not and You know it

I don't know why it's so hard to admit it

When being honest is the only way to fix it

There's no failure, no fall

There's no sin You don't already know

So let the truth be told