Often I’ve wondered if part of growing older comes with the ropes of just not caring as much. You don’t care about others opinions so much. You don’t care about what others think of you or their opinions of you quite as much. You just don’t care as much.This idea struck me on the sunny Friday afternoon on October when we celebrated the life of our friend Leland and laid his body to rest, we gathered after for the wake just down the road from the cemetery. We talked and laughed, telling stories and reminiscing around the tables, mingling about in conversation with others.
We ran into Lloyd who has been the pastor at the church we grew up at. Lloyd is much more than just a pastor to us, he is a dear friend of each of our families, a dear friend to us and the man who married us a few years ago. He had spoken at the funeral earlier that afternoon and concluded by very explicitly sharing the gospel with those who had gathered. This man has a beautiful gift of eloquently speaking truth without watering it down and without tip-toeing around so as to not offend people. He just says it like it is and leaves it as that.
When Lloyd shared the gospel at Leland funeral, it seemed so fitting and appropriate because that’s what Leland’s life was about; Jesus and people.
The older I get the more I see and realize that Jesus and people are the only things that matter in life. The gospel is the story, about Jesus and people, that has been told for centuries past and will be told for centuries to come that our stories are being rewritten by.
As we talked that afternoon with Lloyd, I thanked him for sharing the gospel so straightforwardly and then just leaving it at that. His response was beautiful and is a phrase I have heard echo over and over in my mind again and again; he said that when he speaks or preaches the gospel he just leaves it as that ‘because the truth is enough.’
The truth is enough.
Never could I have thought or penned words that so eloquently depicted what it is that I feel in my soul and bones the older I get.
The truth is enough. The truth of who Christ is is enough, the truth of who I am is enough and that truth of who I am in Christ is enough.
Maybe it’s not that people don’t care as much the older they get, maybe it’s that when people believe that the truth is enough they stop explaining away and justifying everything else in life.
It’s a freeing way to live, to know and believe that the truth is enough.
It’s freeing to know that grace is enough and to be able to live by that.
It’s freeing to know that love is enough, that it conquerors and covers all.
Its freeing to know that by his blood, I am enough.
It’s easier to believe that the truth is enough than to live like it is enough. I still care what other people think about me way too much. I still find myself overly concerned with others thoughts and opinions.
But when the truth is enough, it will always set us free.
The truth is enough, the truth of who I am is enough, and that will always set me free.
‘and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. . . So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.’ John 8:32 & 36