The Noble RenaissanceНамуна

 The Freedom of Truth-Tellers 

As a pastor, I’ve often found myself pacing my office up and down out of frustration because of the antics of some of the people I was guiding. Word would often come to me through a confidante, but I would find getting the truth out of the actual culprit to be much harder. 

We’d go back and forth. I’d ask a thousand questions of the person in question. I’ve found myself wanting to manipulate the truth out of them or ask them to bring up their search history to prove they hadn’t been checking out explicit content. But my methods proved fruitless. I was trying to snatch away a treat from a dog that didn’t want to give it up. The reality is, it is not my duty to tell their truth. 

It wasn’t until I dug thoroughly into the conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well that I changed my pastoral ways. Why would He ask her to fetch her husband if He already knew she had five former husbands and the one she was currently living with was not her husband? He was testing her to see if she could tell the truth. Without hesitation, she told Him she had no husband. As a pastor desperate to help people find freedom, I believe this must have been an exquisite moment for her relationship with our Lord. He must have experienced relief, a sense of trust. He was handed the golden truth from her own mouth. 

Too often we sugar coat, deflect, hide away, divert the subject—or worse yet, tell people what we think they want to hear—all in the name of pride or self-protection. 

But as Christ goes on to explain, God is spirit, and those who worship Him must do so in spirit and truth. 

We are children of God, called to be brutally honest, truth-tellers to the core. It may be horribly humbling at moments, but it is here where all of us shall be set free (John 8:32). 

Whether we are dealing with those unable to tell us the truth or we are avoiding taking ownership of our own truths, let us rise to the challenge of fully worshiping the gift of God in noble truth so that we may not just grow mightier than ever before, but feel the true freedom of what God had hoped for.