The Courage to Tell the Whole Truth: The Road Back After Failure

The Courage to Tell the Whole Truth: The Road Back After Failure Preview · Opening of the manuscript There is a long stretch of road between the moment a person stops running and the moment they walk back through the door. Most of the language we hand out for that stretch is either false or too small. Someone names what actually happened, and we reach for a verse that sounds like a clean finish. God works all things for good. The past is behind you. That is true enough to hurt and thin enough to miss the point.

Psalm 51 was written for the long stretch. It is the prayer of a man who has stopped running, who knows what he did, and who is not yet home. It does not skip the road. It names the road, and it walks the whole thing, every step, toward the only God who can actually create a clean heart. If you preach this psalm as a quick fix you will lie. If you preach it as permission to wallow you will lie in the other direction. Preach it as a road walked with God.

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