Friends, let’s not be shy…
When did you last check the mirror? Just now in the bathroom? When you brushed your teeth this morning? What if you now had a huge chunk of hair sticking straight up or a glob of mascara on your cheek or food stuck in your teeth? Or, maybe you are like me and misplaced hairs and makeup don’t put you in a tizzy, but a wardrobe malfunction revealing the color of your undergarments would. Would you want someone to tell you? And, if you did, would you want it to be a friend or a stranger? A friend! And, hopefully, before you talked to ten other people or walked into your crowded church and sat on the front row.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t shy away from telling my friends if their skirts are tucked in at the wrong place or they forgot an important button on their blouse. I probably wouldn’t shy away from telling most strangers for that matter either. However, as I finished reading the book of James last week, Father convicted me of an area of “shyness” that stills my soul as I consider it’s reality. Do I shy away from the things that really matter?! “My [sisters], if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings [her] back, let [her] know that whoever brings back a sinner from [her] wandering will save [her] soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:19-20). Do I shy away from truth?!
People often ask us what we miss most living overseas. Our response is always the same – fellowship! True, genuine fellowship with other believers, the encouragement of hearing of their walks with the Lord, the truth they speak into our lives as they see discrepancies between our lives and His Word. We crave it, we need it! “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of the enemy” (Proverbs 27:6). The most loving thing that we can do for our sisters is tell them the truth! Especially if they have looked in the mirror themselves, walked away, and forgotten what they looked like (James 1:23-24).
So why isn’t this always the case? Why do we shy away? As I sought my own heart, I realized that I too often use the excuse of the “log in my own eye.” I believe the lie that I don’t want to be a hypocrite, so I can’t lovingly confront my friend about the harsh tone she took with her child, when I did the same thing last week. Why not?! Jesus says in Matthew 7, “ how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?” But then in the following verse, He gives us the solution: Repent! “First take the log out of your own eye [Repent!], and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your [sister’s] eye.” (Mt 7:4-5, italics mine). With nationals where we live, I might use the excuse that I don’t want to offend someone being from a different culture, but His truth is truth no matter where in the world you live or where you are in your walk with the Lord.
What if the sister who loses the rights to her child because she snapped one day amidst total exhaustion had someone providing accountability and not shying away from the hard questions? What about the girl who loses her virginity just to feel loved? The mom who loses her witness at the store because she screams at her children for putting one more thing in the grocery cart? The neighbor who dies and spends eternity apart from Christ?
Do you shy away from truth?
Being the body means that sometimes we walk together, sometimes we need to “bring a sister back,” and sometimes we need to be brought back. For His namesake, let’s not be shy.
– Andi G.
Andi is a wife and mother of three living overseas in Southeast Asia. She met her husband, Adam, while serving overseas after college. Then, after being married for one week, moved to Louisville and started attending Ninth and O, becoming members in May 2008. Adam and Andi served in the Singles’ Ministry before returning back to Southeast Asia in 2012 and still proudly call NAOBC their home church.