Straightforward and Bold

One of the best qualities about my sister Abbey is her ability to tell it like it is.  She is usually straightforward and bold. When she was in confirmation class, she told her own classmates that they should be going to mass weekly and that there were no reasons or excuses for them not to be attending, especially seeing as they were preparing to receive the sacrament of confirmation.  Since then, she has gone to speak to a few of the confirmation classes the last few years and has told them the same thing.  She wasn’t scared about how the students would react or worried about offending them.  I admire her ability to be bold in sharing the truth about faith and I think this approach needs to be used more often.

Our society has become really soft, especially when it comes to the important stuff.  The overall message of our culture is to not say or do certain things because someone might be offended or their feelings might be hurt.  And it seems as if this mindset has seeped into some people in the church as well.  But the real harm is in the truth being left unsaid.

Jesus spoke the truth calmly and with conviction.  This offended some.  But He didn’t back down or soften His teachings.  So why should we?  Anytime Jesus spoke, especially on difficult topics, it was with love.  We are called to do the same thing.  We need to share the truth always, and do it with compassion, love, and humility.  If we really love the people around us, we will not cover up or soften the truths of our faith.

We don’t need a faith that is soft and nice.  We need a faith that is bold and forthright.  Are we willing to say the hard things?  Watering down our faith doesn’t help bring anyone closer to Jesus.  In fact, it probably pushes them in the other direction, or leads them to a false idea of Christianity and a progressive mindset.  It leads to people thinking certain aspects of our faith are open to interpretation or that they are a matter of opinion.
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Everyone is at a different point in their faith journeys.  And that is perfectly acceptable.  We all have a lot more to learn and a lot of room for growth.  But we cannot sit back and pretend that all is well as long as people are “nice” and “good.”  As people of faith, we know we are called to more.  Jesus didn’t die on the cross because he was a “nice and good person.”  He went against the grain and spoke the truth in love.  He asks us to do the same.  May we all be straightforward and bold in sharing the truth of our faith with the people around us.