TRUTH

A friend told me that he woke up resolved to be more truthful. So, he has gone on a crusade to always be truthful. In fact, he said, he had already ticked a few people off with his truthfulness. So, in good humor he warned me not to ask him anything unless I wanted to hear the truth.

First, I congratulated him on his new crusade but I also suggested a little truth of my own. I told him that just because we know a truth doesn’t mean we have to unload it on someone. He thought about that for a moment and said he liked it. He could see how that could allow him to avoid unnecessary conflicts while still being a truthful person. In other words, just because someone got a bad haircut he doesn’t have to volunteer the information.

Of all the words we say, the words of truth are often the most powerful. Truth seems to cut through all the various defense mechanisms that we as humans put forward. Even if we outwardly reject truth, truth still seems to pierce the shell of our resistance. Yet, even though we know the truth about something, the truth is we need to be careful how we dispense it. There is a right way, wrong way, right time, wrong time, right reason and wrong reason to download truth. Truth is very powerful and we should be careful how we use it.