"As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."
Proverbs 27:17, ESV
I mentioned that my dear friend and I would have some accountability to each other, and that we would ask each other the tough questions about how our lives are going with respect to this particular sin. Well, folks, the thing that I forgot to point out is that we both have to be honest in order for this to work. I mean, I can already count three times today that I have had to check myself, center in prayer, and make note of a mental response I should NOT have had... and this has to be shared openly.
Accountability is such a tough and scary word, but it really isn't something you can avoid, if you truly wish to grow. The thing that makes it scary for me is something I wrote about once in reference to the dark times in life, when we wander through the valley of the shadow of death (ref. Psalm 23:4). In the darkest of darkness possible, there would be nothing visible, and the reaction would be to become silent. In that place, terrifying as it would be, there is no way that our positive self talk and reassuring excuses would hold up. Even we wouldn't be able to believe it, because in the absence of any light, we can't paint it for anything other than what it is. Hurts, right?
The truth is the same way, in that it is completely immovable. Think of it this way: two plus two equals four, and that is a fact. It is the truth. Whether you like it or not, the equation balances only one way, and that is to have it accurate, and that is to answer truthfully. You can be as upset with one of the twos as you wish, but that does not change their value, does it? And if their value is unchanged, then the answer is unchanged, and that is where I come to the place of understanding that the truth is immovable. The truth doesn't have any respect for persons, and it is not swayed by powerful and sweeping speeches. People's perception of it can be colored with the tint of such things, but the truth never changes... ever.
This is why it is so frightening to us all, and why we wish so desperately to be able to change it and shade it with rationalizations and justifications and excuse, excuses, excuses... it's frightening, because we can't change it. To add insult to injury, our entire culture has been built on the premise that you can change and improve ANYTHING you like, and when we Americans are told that we can't do "X," whatever it may be, we tend to go to extremes to prove otherwise. However, this is one area that we will not ever succeed, and we all know that to be an immovable and irrefutable truth (yep, I said irrefutable, and I meant it).
It's a lot like the truth that Jesus is the Son of God, and our salvation is through His perfect Atonement on the cross at Calvary. You didn't earn your place in Heaven, and there is no chance in the eternity of time that you ever could. You're not good enough top do it, and never will be... neither am I... and neither is any other person ever born, from Creation to the Second Coming. We are saved by grace, through faith, and that is an absolute fact. It just is.
And this, dear Christian siblings, is why we fear accountability. We cannot change it, and we have to be open and truly honest and vulnerable for it to exist and for God to use it to work on us. Otherwise, we remain prideful, and we lust after the control of our own destiny, and we are unwilling to share this portion of our life (which is already fully known, by the way) with the One who created us. That is awful... and I am guilty... but I'm trying to change.
My prayer today is that we would all find the courage to admit to God what He already knows. Then, we need to finally have the courage to admit it to ourselves. Finally, we need a partner in this race, a relay person that can carry the baton when we need that assistance, and we need to admit to them, whomever they may be, whatever it is that is burdening us. We just must, for the truth exists, no matter how hard we try to fight it, and it is what it is.
God bless you all!!!
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