What Truth Sounds Like

Last Sunday, I spoke about "Church As Therapeutic Community" and the symbiotic nature of grace and truth, which of course, describes Jesus (John 1:14). Grace is unbroken, unearned acceptance. Truth is describing things as they really are. They work together. Grace without truth becomes permissive; truth without grace results in judgment. But together, grace and truth invite us out of isolation, out of going solo, and into relationship. Grace combined with truth invites the real us, uncensored, into relationship where we are understood and embraced. In the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, the truth of her life comes out, but for the first time it doesn't condemn her, because Jesus does not condemn her. The truth isn't used to further hurt her, but to heal. The truth is revealed about her life, but grace frees her to live truthfully: "He told me everything I've ever done." Jesus is truth and grace to her, and she leads the whole community to him.

Over the years, I have found other "voices" who have taught me what truth sounds like, and through their writing, also what grace feels like too. When we grow up grace and truth deprived, it is an oasis to the soul to drink from the well of others who have told the truth and found a kind of grace because of it. I had planned to share some of these voices last Sunday, but because of time didn't get a chance. Here are some of the truthful voices that have made an impact on my life.

Frederick Buechner
Telling Secrets; Also The Sacred Journey; Now and Then
Probably my favorite author. This trilogy of memoirs covers his father's suicide and his daughter's bout with anorexia. No one writes truth more beautifully or poetically.






Henri Nouwen
Life of the Beloved; Also The Return of the Prodigal Son
The quintessential work on self-identity by listening truthfully to the voice of God instead of the world.







Anne Lamott
Grace (Eventually); Also Traveling Mercies; Plan B
Where the aforementioned authors take the serious route, Lamott is all irreverance, self-deprecation, and side-splitting humor...precisely because she tells it like it is. She writes about faith, parenting, death, and eating like no one else. You feel better just by reading her.





Caroline Knapp
Drinking: A Love Story
This brutally honest story of alcoholism had a profound effect on me and my understanding of addiction. Knapp mines deeply, and her ultimate search for the love her father never gave her speaks to both emptiness and hope.






Donald Miller
Searching For God Knows What; also Blue Like Jazz; A Million Miles In A Thousand Years
Sometimes described as the male Anne Lamott, even endorsed by her; not as intense as the other writers on this list, but some real nice gems of insight, and always an enjoyable read. I heard him speak in person, and the dude's refreshingly humble and honest.




Ray Anderson
The Gospel According to Judas
I had to get Dr. Anderson onto the list. He's had more impact on my understanding of truth than anyone. This is really his only accessible book. But it is still, in my opinion, the most profound telling of the depths of God grace.