He walked up to me at church…
He stood very close as he spoke…
Talking in low tones…
As if he were trying to convey some great hidden truth…
“So,” he said….
“You’ve invented a whole new dress style!”
“Huh?”
It was Sunday morning and we were getting ready to volunteer at our church.
“Your shirt,” he said. “It’s not tucked in…”
Our church has a very casual dress style. People show up in jeans and untucked shirts every day…
I had no idea what he was trying to say…
I stood up in front of 50 volunteers to talk about today’s service…
My friend kept looking at me as if he were still trying to convey the truth I had missed in his words…
New dress style? untucked shirt?
As people started arriving at church, I walked around talking to volunteers and people attending.
As I got in my car after the service, I looked down …
And discovered the truth about what my friend had been trying to tell me…
The truth he thought I should know before I stood up in front of a group of 50 people, or before I started talking with friends and strangers as they arrived at church…
The truth was….
Have you guessed yet?
That truth was something I had done… or more accurately had forgotten to do… when I got dressed that morning….
It would have been OK if he had been a little more direct…
Then again, other people had probably noticed and not said anything…
I wondered…
How often have I been afraid to speak truth to my family or friends?
How often have I used fancy words to hide what I really meant?
I wondered if the real the reason for my action had been fear that others would think less of me if I spoke the truth.
Most of all, I wondered if my failure to speak the truth had cheated them and me out of the chance to become who Christ wants us to be…
…speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ Ephesians 4:15
