I Caught a Fish That Was THIS Big

I am not a fisherman, but I have been fishing three times.

Once as a young boy with my best friend Wally, he managed to hook my back with his hook, tearing both my shirt and my flesh. My second time was with a group of youth leader friends in New Mexico. On the way I told them the story about Wally. This made the moment Cameron managed to firmly snag the side of my head with his hook on his back swing, even more ironic. The third trip, I sat in my friend Josh's boat freezing in the rain for a few hours, so although there were no fish involved, we did have fishing poles, so I guess it counts.

The one thing I know about fishing, is that every good fisherman, has a great fishing story. One of the main components to a great fishing story is how the story changes over time. It starts out as a 5 pound bass, and 20 years later, it is a 40 pound shark.

The thing is, as a general rule, everyone believes stretching the truth or lying isn't a good idea. Yet, for fishing stories, this rule gets a pass.

Reality is, there are quite a few places where truth stretching, or truth shrinking are accepted. I'm convinced it really isn't a good thing.

The area I want to talk about today is, truth in our relationships.

Somewhere along the way, we have defined love and acceptance as avoidance of tough truths. For the sake of the relationship, or out of love for the person, we don't talk about difficult things. We don't tell  them when we are hurt, frustrated, or disappointed; because we don't want them to feel bad.

I think part of the difficulty with this, is many of us have used the Bible to explain our approach.

For instance, in 1 Peter 4:8 it says, "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. "

We say, since I love this person, I will avoid the issue, cover it up, or say it isn't a big deal. Trouble is, that isn't what this verse is saying. When paired with other passages like, Matthew 18:15-17, James 1:19, and Romans 12:17 we see that we are supposed to work out our issues through conversation. We talk about it, with respect for each other, and we do our part to live in peace.

Once we take all these verses into consideration, and then apply 1 Peter 4:8, we see the bigger picture. We are to be open and honest in our dialogue with each other, talking about hurts, offenses, or misunderstandings. The reality is, that is hard to do, so we need to make sure we are committed to loving each other; and that love will help us get through the conversation without bitterness or unresolved hurt.

So let's commit to the hard work of building relationships and encouraging each other, making sure that it is all covered with the growing love we have for each other.