Can you handle the truth?

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free — John 8:32

“You can’t handle the truth.” – Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men.

A little imagery to remind you of that scene in A Few Good Men.

Tonite in Saturday Night Redefined — Pastor Brad Reed speaks about how we react and respond to people who because of trust in our maturity, trust in our Christianity, choose to be transparent and talk about their struggles. More often than not, he expresses, we talk over other people, using their vulnerability as a way to propel as to a platform, a higher moral standpoint. We overuse our moral ascendancy. Pastor Brad spoke about the adulterous woman in the bible, an inch away from being stoned to death by townspeople. Jesus says, “Whoever is without sin, cast the first stone.” This behavior is probably strange to us contemporary Christians. How can their consciences handle stoning a woman to death? Yet we probably don’t realize, that in the little word daggers we throw infront or behind the back of people we judge, those we deem unworthy in our mind, that we still do this in the modern day. We do not receive the truth about other people in love and balance truth with grace. Pastor Brad says that we should be nets to each other, catching each other when we fall.

Do we really believe that truth sets us free? Or do we stifle the truth and live in the illusion of being “perfect” all the time? Or maybe, like Tom Cruise in “A Few Good Men” we can’t handle the truth.

As I listen to the sermon, a lot of things go through my head – the many times I may have unknowingly shut down a trusting heart because I could not bear to listen quietly. Can we really handle the truth? We are sometimes like a gingerbread house -sweet on the outside, but it so easily crumbles with truth and transparency. We hide our own struggles and suppress them, and drown out out desperate cries with a great big Hallelujah! Some Christians cope by living a double life — having the Sunday self and the weekday self. And because we struggle ourselves, we cannot even bear to lend a listening ear, or words of wisdom or a helping hand to those who decide they will be vulnerable with us and pour out their struggles. The church should be a place of transparency, a place where we can be honest with ourselves, and have that honesty received with grace. It is not to say that we won’t rebuke our Christian brother or sister when we need to — “Better is open rebuke Than love that is concealed.” Proverbs 27:5. Only we must do it out of love, and not out of empty criticism. “If I have all faith so as to remove mountains,
but have not love, I am nothing.” 1 Cor 13. Sometimes, I don’t even have the words to say. When I don’t — I offer prayer, and it often helps a lot.

I am deeply convicted by this. I once asked of a friend — “Is it right that he has to be so transparent? Should he tell me everything?” I realized that I should have not been so concerned with protecting myself and my feelings, I should have put the other person first and see it as an opportunity to be used by God. I should have listened with my heart and not with my mind. I should have reacted with the words that Jesus would say, and the quietness that Jesus had. If we only listen with the peace that passes understanding, then we will truly understand and be able to help.

I realize that we should not be so concerned with the “garment” being squeaky clean. Stains are not always pretty – but they are real. We should gently help the person get the stain out — the entire garment doesn’t have to be thrown away.

The Small Group Emporium :)

Today was the first ever Small Group Festival – a convergence of all the 60 or so small groups of Angelus Temple. Finally, the small group ministry gets the right amount of attention that it deserves. Small groups are definitely the arms of the body of Christ – reaching out to people in deeper ways, and getting them plugged in. Angelus Temple calls itself the church that never sleeps, and rightfully so. A small group goes past the sunday sermon and forms relationships, encourages involvement, and ultimately the use of one’s god’s given gifts.

The Creative Arts group was not without pressure to create the best group board. Duh, we’re supposed to be THE creative people of the ministry! It would just be a funny (for them, not for us) oxymoron if the creative small group had an uncreative booth. We worked our butt off and started cutting out the sun (whose rays would splash out the different creative arts) on Saturday, continued the creative work on Tuesday, and brought out our baking bowls yesterday. The presentation was a creation story inspired masterpiece — with the sun as the center, some soil and rocks showing the earth, a couple of easels holding up painted masterpieces from prior events, a booklet of the writing we created together, a powerpoint presentation showing the creative small group at various poses in various events, and of course, the star of the feast — the caramel bars that are literally to DIE for. We were right next to the culinary group — which, in all fairness, got a lot of attention. We competed well – it’s hard to compete with food!

We landed third place for presentation. I was cheering my heart out — there were about sixty groups there, and third place is better than no place in my opinion. Our dear leader, Quoleshna wasn’t so happy with the results. After all, we are creativity. We should have won top 1 for creativity!  Everybody’s a winner though — our sign up sheet was full, with a promise of more members and more participation.  Surprisingly, our famous caramel bars did not win the recognition of best dessert.   (Some people simply don’t know what they’ve tasted.) These bars have a rich history of tastiness and a throng of satisfied followers. Why it didn’t win? I don’t understand.

It was a big small group festival — great food, great fun, a great chance to be creative, tons of people and a worthwhile time.  Hopefully, we’ll see new members and amazing upheavals of talent this year.