Faithfully Yours - Recipe for recovery - Honesty

Details

Published on Sunday, May 7, 2017

By Neil Strohschein

The Neepawa Banner

In my lifetime, I have been fortunate to meet professionals who, when asked to do so, have been brutally honest—telling me things I needed to hear.

One such event happened 30 years ago. My doctor refused to inject cortisone into my left ankle, even though I was experiencing intense arthritic pain at the time. “I could give it to you now,” my doctor said, “but in 10 years you will have received all the cortisone your body can take and in 30 years, when you might need it, you won’t be able to take it. Your best option is to keep a supply of pain killers on hand, take them when needed, keep active and work your way through the pain.” That advice has been repeated by other doctors since then. It is advice I continue to follow and that continues to have the expected results.

A few years later, I spent time with a Christian counselor who also believed in “telling it like it is.” He told me that the anger and bitterness I was feeling at the time would never go away until I forgave those who had hurt me—even though many of them would never seek my forgiveness. He showed me how to forgive. The anger and bitterness vanished and have never returned.

In his letter to the Christians in Rome, St. Paul set the highest possible standard for honesty—a standard he urged everyone to follow. “Provide,” he said, “things honest in the sight of all men.” (Romans 12:17b KJV) That’s another way of saying what when asked a question, one’s response should always be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

There is no substitute for honesty, especially when the issues being faced relate to one’s long-term physical, emotional, relational, spiritual or financial well-being. We want those to whom we turn for help, the professionals who are well-paid for their services, to tell us what our problems are, how serious they are, our prognosis (chance of recovery) and what we must do to recover. 

We have every right to expect the same degree of honesty from those who govern us. If lives or property are in danger from fire, flood or winter storm, we want our leaders to be honest in their evaluation of the danger and warn us accordingly. We are happy when what actually happens is not as severe as they had predicted. But when it is, we are glad that we were warned and could take the necessary steps to protect ourselves and our properties.

Why can’t we have the same degree of honesty on issues like poverty, addictions, homelessness, the environment, national security and government debt? Getting the facts on any of these issues is not difficult. Statistics Canada has been collecting national figures for years. If we want an idea of how severe the problems are locally, we can ask those who run our local clothing depots, food banks or emergency help lines. They keep meticulous records of their activities and can provide helpful information on the challenges faced by some of those in our neighborhoods.

Maybe the real problem in this country is that we just don’t want to know how bad things really are; because with knowledge comes the responsibility to accept our share of the blame for the social and economic problems we face and do something to correct them.

That attitude needs to die—now!! Honesty must prevail. Only honesty can motivate us to change and demand change.