There are times when you just have to tell the truth, no matter who gets hurt in the process. We sometimes talk about the elephant in the room as a way to express this need to talk about the uncomfortable truth that almost everyone seems to know, but no one seems willing to discuss. But someone needs to start the conversation.
In the field of communication agreement can be a bad thing. We call it groupthink today. But there is a danger in groupthink that is named the Abilene Paradox. It goes something like this. A family is playing checkers on the porch of their Texas ranch in the late 1950’s. One member of the family suggests that they all get in the car and drive to Abilene Texas some 50 miles away and eat some pie at the dinner there. They suggest it, not because they actually want to go get pie, but because there is a lull in the conversation and think everyone is bored. No one really wants to go on the hot Texas afternoon in a non-air conditioned car, but each holds their negative opinion to themselves. They say yes out of a strange sense of support for each other. They don’t want to be the only one not enthusiastic about the trip. They don’t want to be the odd man out.
So they make the miserable trip and eat the awful pie. Four hours later they are back home and start a discussion where the truth comes out that no one really wanted to go on the trip, but felt trapped by what they thought everyone else was thinking, namely that the trip was a good idea. They find out that no one wanted to go, but that everyone felt pressure to conform to the opinion of the group.
John does not feel this pressure to conform. He doesn’t yield to the political correctness of his day and there was political correctness in his day. He doesn’t just say what other people want him to say, or what he thinks others want him to say. He speaks the Truth in a very straightforward and direct manner.
The Truth that John states that is just a difficult for our world to hear today as it was back then is that there is darkness and light. There is an established moral right and moral wrong. And there is no middle ground, no grey. There are no 50 shades of anything. Light and darkness, black and white, right and wrong.
As John said, God is light without any darkness. And if we claim to be connected to Him, we can’t live our lives in darkness. If we do, we lie to ourselves, to others, and to God. There is no place for grey.
I remember as a kid going to the public swimming pool. I remember when they would blow the whistle to signal that everyone had to get out of the pool and I would try to keep my feet in the water. By comparison to my whole body, my feet were such a small part. But the lifeguard wouldn’t even let our fingers be in the water. Out of the pool meant just that. Everyone had to have every part out of the pool. In or out, no partials.
John says it is this way in our life of faith. We can’t be dippers in God’s pool. We must be all in. We can’t pretend. Light or darkness. And in God there is no darkness, only light. So we must walk only in light.
If John were alive today and in the political arena he would talk about the 100 Trillion dollar debt that we owe that we can’t possibly repay. He would talk about the actual threat of Islam as it is believed and practiced by a large segment of Muslims around the world. He would talk about the greed of the few that enslaves the many in poverty. He would talk about the sexual crime and slaughter of innocents, including those in the womb.
For John and for us there is right and wrong and the LORD has defined it. We don’t get to use our Crayola big box to color the world to suit our behavior. We either walk in light or darkness. And the LORD has spoken clearly on the important issues. Are we willing to accept His color palette?
The Arnold Journey 