The Highest Price

Trisha and I had the opportunity to speak at Mountain Lake Church yesterday. The services were powerful and we were so honored to share our story.

After the first service we made our way to the lobby to greet people. A man made eye contact with me. His eyes were blood shot and his lip was quivering. He came up and put his mouth to my ear and he said, “Is it worth it?”

I said, “Is what worth it?”

“Is telling the truth worth it? I need to know, is it really worth it?”

I looked at him and I could see fear gripping his heart. I knew that look and I knew that feeling. I said, “It will cost you, but it is worth it.”

Those of us that hide do a cost analysis every day. We are trying to determine if the truth we hide, if the sin we conceal, if the addiction we deny is worth bringing into the light. Is it worth it? We tell ourselves that the pain would be too great. The damage would be to deep. The embarrassment would be too much. So every day that we delay being honest, we do so because we have calculated the risk in our mind, and to us, the cost is too great.

You know what I’ve learned…the hard way? The marriage I tried to save by hiding pornography was destroyed. The ministry I tried to save by withholding truth was lost. The relationships and the reputation I tried to build by pretending I was more put together than I really was evaporated. In an attempt to save everything by hiding, I lost it all.

There is no doubt that being vulnerable will cost you. There is no doubt that sharing truth has a price. There is no doubt that coming out of hiding will have consequences and cause damage. But the highest price comes in the slow death of your heart and your marriage and your relationships.

While we convince ourselves that we are saving those around us by not telling the truth, we are really just losing those things that mean the most to us so gradually that we don’t even notice until their gone.

The greatest of all paradoxes to me is in the fact that there is a huge price to pay in sharing truth. There is a cost to being honest. There is a price in transparency…but it is the truth, and the truth alone that will set you free.

Isn’t freedom what you long for?

It is worth it.

It will cost you, but it is worth it.