Taking Back Your Key

I've been traveling for the past 3 weeks. I learned a little something about truth.

In Europe, I spent time with Holocaust Survivors. I will write more about this incredible experience later, but for now, I want to focus on one idea.  The first night someone stood up in front of them and said, "We are not the Christians who wore the black crosses." This would be a reference to the Nazi's who did horrible things to them and their families in the name of Jesus. These precious people spent a time of their life being told that the truth was that they were worthless and had no place on this earth. That was the "truth" to the Nazi's and it was being "PUT ON" the Jewish people. The Nazi's took "their" truth key and locked the Jewish people in a cage of torment.  Then, seventy something years later the same Jewish people were sitting at a retreat with Christians who had a very different opinion of that awful "truth". We spent the week loving on them, serving them, walking with them, laughing with them, doing all sorts of charades due to the language barrier and ultimately hoping to give them back a key to unlock the truth of what Christians really believe.  I'll never forget the Jewish women touching their heart and extending their hand to my heart to express that we are connected in truth and love. That is the type of truth that brings freedom. 

There is a different kind of truth. A truth where people feel like "their" truth is more important than "your" truth. This is the truth that comes without regret of the damage that can be done when it is unleashed. This is the truth that is unapologetic and cares more about being heard than the heart of the person receiving it. There is no clean up crew for the damage left behind. Maybe you've had that kind of "truth" spoken over you. Maybe you have been the one who feels compelled to carry the message. This kind of truth only results in one thing: being caged. I would venture to say that this kind of truth, really is not truth at all. 

There is a quote by Dr. Seuss that I absolutely love.

Friends, I know that sometimes we have good intentions in what we say, but the only thing we need to "put on" is love. Are the words coming out of your mouth meant for good? What will the result be? Is the person you are saying them to in a place to receive them? If you can not answer those questions then for the love, PLEASE choose silence. Don't slam the door shut on someone's cage and take their key.

If you have been hurt, know this....no matter how well someone else knows you, they do not know you better than you know yourself. Take back your key. Know yourself well enough to know the truth about who you are. Surround yourself with people who remind you of that, so that when the naysayers come, you can rest in the fact that it is more about them than you. 

It is  too easy to lose our key and feel caged by other people's opinions. It is too easy to slip into that place of competition rather than complement. Opinion rather than truth. Selfishness rather than selflessness. 

So go on and pick up your key. Unlock your cage. Maybe you have a friend whose key is laying in the dirt while they succumb to the cage around them. Pick it up, dust it off and hand it back to them. They may need help unlocking their cage. That's what friends and sisters do. 

You will know the truth and the truth will set you free?

Notice that FREEDOM is a result of truth.

Let's not cage the captives, but set them free.

I'm thankful for the people who drop keys back into my cage and help me unlock it from time to time. 

Which one will you be? A thief of keys or a lock smith?