Raw Truth

You are working through a Bible study. You might be working through it on your own or with a family member or close friend. Maybe you're doing it with a group of girlfriends. Possibly you signed up to join a group from church. Whatever the case, you truck along nicely, delighted to the see lessons learned each week. You answer the questions, participate in a discussion, and feel the instruction hand of the Holy Spirit on your heart. You could do this all the time!

Until suddenly...the questions change.

What specifically has the Holy Spirit taught you through this study so far? Okay, you can handle this one. After all, you simply need to summarize what has been running through your heart and mind over the past few weeks. No problem.

Stop for a few minutes of thought and prayer. What is preventing you from taking action on what you have learned thus far? Hmmmm...okay, this one is a little tougher. This one means you have to actually slow down and take stock of where you are right now. Suddenly the spotlight moves from the exciting things you have been learning to the current condition of your heart. You take a cursory glance at yourself and try to ponder exactly what to write. Who will see this? How much do you really want to expose? Maybe you can just jot down a few thoughts without digging into the real depths of your heart. After all, right now the seeds of these new lessons just need a few shallow inches of good dirt. You can deal with the deeper stuff later when it is just you and God.

What action are you going to take to walk forward in obedience? You ponder what you wrote for the previous question. But there is a nagging thought that you should go deeper. The space provided for writing is not all that great. There just is not room to go deeper. Besides, you do not want to take up all of the discussion in your group time. So, you decide to just go with what you have. You can always come back later and really analyze. You breathe a sigh of relief, ready to state an action based on the thoughts you already wrote down. You know there is more. There is something deeper you need to deal with. This is just not quite the forum for it. After all, who knows who might glance at your book and read your answers. You need to protect the raw truth and put out something a little lighter. You can deal with the rest privately with God later.

When you get around to it.

There is a problem with what I just typed. I put a lot of "you" in those paragraphs. I probably should have put "I" instead.

I like to share the things God teaches me through His Word. But, I like to share them in polished fashion. I write, then I edit. I make sure that I have processed through everything. If something is not quite solid in my own mind, I refrain from sharing it, at least for a while. So, when asked questions in a "public" forum like a Bible study, I hold back. I want to only share what I can polish.

I claim I do not want to take over the study or expose raw answers to other people, but, if I am honest with myself, I realize there is more to it. I fear raw, honest truth, whether I intend to share it or not. I fear truly baring myself. It is so much easier to ponder a truth and consider how to polish it for public consumption than it is to consider how to dig deeper. Keep it simple. Keep it basic. Deal with it later...or not.

Facing the raw truth is difficult. I always feel so much better after I do, but I have to work through the struggle to get to the point of feeling better. The truth is that you will probably never read the raw, unpolished truth here. That, however, does not give me license to only deal with what I am going to polish up for you to read. I do not have permission to ignore the raw truth myself.

What raw truth faces you this week? Join me in digging deep and facing it. And may our week be better because of it.