Why So Timid?

Ok, I've started this blog a few times now, only to erase what I had written and start over. I think I'm trying to be too "PC" with a subject about being more bold. So, here goes.


Why is it that we are so timid and afraid of hurting loved ones feelings when it comes to sharing good, spiritual, or other caring thoughts with them? Is it the scriptural warning against being confrontational? or the command in the New Testament to "agree with thine adversary quickly"? or is it that we are simply afraid to hurt their feelings and perhaps (we fear) drive them further away with our words of warning or concern?


I think it is all of the above, mixed in with details and circumstances unique to each and every one of us.


What if we were as bold as the powers that wish us to be miserable (like unto themselves) are? Friends (well-meaning or not) are seldom afraid to offer someone that first beer, or cigarette, or pill--(c'mon, it's great, you'll love it, c'mon)--and peer pressure is a very real and very powerful tool. But we, who watch our loved ones engage in harmful (physical or spiritual) activities, seem to be afraid to speak up, tell them that we love them, and that we want (more than anything) to see them "return" to the place where they can find peace, real happiness, and joy.


"But you're just judging us! And it's not cool to judge others. Can't you just accept us for who we are and what we do?" But it's not about judgment. It's not about "looking down" on who they are. It's about love. And why is that so hard for many of us to share? Sure, it's easy not to say anything, but to go about living our lives according to our faith, hoping our good examples "rub off" on them, but is this enough?


Can we ask them not to engage in unwholesome activities, or do or say things that go contrary to the faith they were raised in? Isn't that crossing "the line," somehow? YES. Yes it is. And where the adversary crossed that line to pull them away from light and truth, it falls on us to cross that line to lead them back.


Of course it must be done with love and kindness, but also done boldly, and not afraid of what it might "look like." Regardless of how it might appear, when done with real love, unconditional, maybe, just maybe what they were taught in their youth will be brought to their rememberance, and they will feel the warmth of basking again in the light of all that is good and right.


You can see why I started and stopped this entry a couple of times. If you are offended with these words, I apologize--it is never my intent to hurt anyone's feelings. But whether you believe it or not, we are all in the middle of a great war that started before the world was that is being waged right here, right now, and at risk are the very souls of those we love.


Now is not the time for being timid. Now is the time for love, expressed by in words as well as example, and to borrow the words of Winston Churchill, "never, never, never give up."


--Guy

(The imaged use above is entitled, Lost and Found, by Greg Olsen)