Last week, I was the guest of a Fatherhood Initiative in Northeast Denver (barber shop style).  I was truly amazed of what my ears, eyes, and heart experienced while being present with 20 plus men of different races and beliefs.  When they were asked to speak about what their wives, children, or significant others would say about their footprints in their lives, they responded genuinely, tearfully and emotionally.  According to Winston Churchill, “Truth is inconvertible, panic may resent it, ignorance may deride it, malice may distort it, but there it is.”

    As these men spoke without panic, ignorance, malice or distortion the truth came to light. This week’s perception from Gordon MacDonald (Feeling As God Feels) prompts us all to save our rebukes and speak the truth as these men have done.  

    One time, 20 or so years ago, I was in Japan on a speaking tour with a close personal friend. He was a number of years older than I was. As we walked down the street in Yokohama, Japan, the name of a common friend came up, and I said something unkind about that person. It was sarcastic. It was cynical. It was a put-down. My older friend stopped, turned, and faced me until his face was right in front of mine. With deep, slow words he said, “Gordon, a man who says he loves God would not say a thing like that about a friend.”

    He could have put a knife into my ribs, and the pain would not have been any less. But you know something? There have been ten thousand times in the last 20 years that I have been saved from making a jerk of myself. When I’ve been tempted to say something unkind about a brother or sister, I hear my friend’s voice say, “Gordon, a man who says he loves God would not speak in such a way about a friend.”

    What if, before we spoke, we heard the voice of God reminding us to speak the truth because through that we are set free?