lent 21 - honesty

Ever since I started writing these blogs people have fed back to me that they appreciate my honesty .  Yesterday being a case in point.  And I always find it a bit.... surprising.  Partly because Ive always been the sort of person who tells it as it is.  I remember being introduced to a room full of people by a friend who said ' this is Caz, what you see is what you get'.   Given that we are all made of the same stuff and life tends to deal us a similar hand I don't see the point of pretending.  Having said that, honesty is in the eye of the beholder.  What we say is always edited, mediated, interpreted and is never the whole truth.  We don't know what the whole truth of any situation really is.  My version events is just that - my version.  As seen through my eyes and experienced by me.  Expressed as I want to express it, most likely to achieve an effect which I deem to be beneficial.   What I write here in my blog is a story.... yes, it is a ' true' story in that it is not a fabrication of my imagination, but its a narrative told from a point of view to achieve an effect.

What I hope is that the telling of the story allows the spirit of God to highlight and underline things which might be helpful to others.  I believe that God speaks in parables and through stories all the time. and because Jesus is THE TRUTH, He can take words which are a version of the truth, and breathe His spirit into them so that they become Truth to the person hearing them.

It is a mystery.     

I have discovered that one of the ways you can tell if you are free from something is if you can talk about it objectively and without justifying and defending yourself no matter how badly you might come out of the telling of it.  People who have been freed from addiction or criminal pasts can happily relate the worst excesses of depravity , knowing that they are now free and that Jesus has forgiven and forgotten.   Its as though they are talking about another person - and of course in reality they are, because the old has gone, a new creation has been born.  God's mercies are new every morning.

So, it is worth remembering that whenever we are hearing anyone's truth, it is only part of the story.  It is so easy to interpret things through the filter of our own experience and make judgements and form opinions on the basis of our own understanding.  Jesus looks at the heart.  He is the only one who judges righteously.  He is the only one in possession of all the facts.  And He is the one who, at the end of the day, will bring everything that has been hidden in the shadows out into the light.