The truth shall set you free... and sometimes hurt also.

When and where does truth take a back seat to compassion and love... or does it? 

It depends on the nature of the truth that needs to be seen or shared. In fact, sharing the truth in a very direct and clear way may be the best way to love someone, even if painful at the time. 

If you saw a blind and deaf person accidentally wander onto a train track and an oncoming train was bearing down on them, with only seconds to spare, would you handle them with kid gloves and gently try to persuade them to get off the track or would you rush up to them and forcefully remove i.e. tackle them if necessary, to get them out of harm's way? If you only have a split second to get them to safety, you would remove them as quickly and forcefully as necessary, maybe even breaking a rib or two or both of you getting bruised and scraped up in the process. Better alive with a broken rib or bruised side than dead.

Would the blind person be upset? At first? No doubt. They have no clue what just happened. At best, they likely will be wondering who you are, or why you tackled them. All they know is someone just knocked the stuffing out of them, injuring them in the process. More than likely, they are thinking it's time for a lawsuit. Once it is explained to them what just happened and why you did what you did by a trusted family member who saw and confirmed the whole thing, I venture to say they would be grateful for the pain you inflicted on them (not the pain itself but the outcome which involved pain to achieve) and would probably give you a hug once they understood you just saved their life. The pain you caused was ultimately their gain.

So it often is with truth. It can be very disruptive and painful, but in the end, it saves us and sets us free.

It can be the most loving, but also the hardest thing we can encounter at the same time.

We must be real but...

We must be who we are because anything else is ¹pretense. 

There is also no growth and healing unless we assess ourselves honestly. We can not accurately assess ourselves if we are not honest with ourselves i.e. we can not fix what we don't know is broken. This is vital if we are to grow.

We also must recognize who we are, is not necessarily (or likely) the best version of us and who we were created to be. Being the real you is important but is not necessarily or automatically the best you. 

While it is important to be real, it is equally - if not more - important that we are aligned with who we are designed to be. We will never reach our full potential and be fulfilled until we are - nor will we bring the greatest honor to God by being less than he created us to be.

For most (maybe all) of us, there is a significant gap and real tension between who we are and who we are designed to be i.e. our real self and our true potential self.

Which may be the primary reason for all our struggles. Our journey with all the bumps and bruises is designed to bring us to the place of being our best - highest potential - self i.e. that self that best reflects our Creator (in whose image we have been made) in the way unique to us... which also happens to be where we find greatest joy and fulfillment.

The beauty of being in Christ is we can be real - without threat or concern of rejection - and pursue being the best us at the same time. The key to becoming all we are designed to be (our potential self) is to understand that in Christ, God fully accepts, loves and embraces us no matter how broken the actual (real) me is i.e. God receives us as if we are already perfect even though we are not. 

He now calls us to conduct ourselves ²according to and out of this status of perfect approval he has bestowed-assigned-gifted to us by and in Christ. We now pursue our best self because we want to, not because we have to. Out of this posture of complete acceptance we are free to become who we were created to be. In fact it is the ²only way we can. Trying to be our best self without being empowered by God's love (total acceptance) is futile... a "work of the flesh."

For a discussion on being empowered by God click here and here. 

For a discussion on how God doesn't need us but delights in us click here.

For a discussion on the essence of God's life click here.

For a further discussion on being real click here.
______________________________

¹God already completely knows who we are so there's no point in pretending to be someone we are not. He even knows what we will do and say before we say or do it (Psa 139) i.e. we never surprise God by our good or poor choices and actions. We may attempt to use pretense to avoid rejection and protect ourselves or bolster our image in the eyes of others but this doesn't help with God. He already knows and sees us (and everything abouts use along with everything else) as we truly are.

²Knowing we are significant and highly regarded-valued by God (so much so he sent his eternally beloved Son to restore us) stirs in us a desire to honor Him. The more we see how much God delights in us the greater our desire to bring him joy.

God is attracted to and delights in his image in us. Even though that image is marred, the potential for us to fully participate and delight in God and the fullness of life among and between the Father, Son and Spirit, is still perfectly intact. God is constantly working to bring that image with our innate potential into greater union, wholeness, and fruition so we (God and I) might mutually delight (glory) in the other to the greatest extent possible. This is the means of our greatest joy and a source of great delight for God.