As I heard the words, "I hereby give permission to you, my trusted family members, to tell me the truth about myself, even when it hurts," my first thought was, Wow, that's noble.

And then it hit me: Oh wait, those words are coming out of my mouth!

My next thought was: I will regret what I just said!

Truth, I've come to realize, is like a powerful flashlight. I'd rather be the pointer than the pointee.

Children of light

We preachers are truth tellers. It's what we do. We shine the light of God's truth into darkness, illuminating broken and sinful situations with God's Word so that those who hear will, we hope, be drawn into the warm light of his love.

We can share the apostle Paul's words about being "children of the light." We can preach about how we're supposed to stop lying to one another and speak truth if we are to grow in spiritual intimacy as fellow members of Christ's own Body. We can preach about putting away those nasty attitudes ...