Too Close for Comfort

Not only that, count yourselves blessed every time people put you down, or throw you out, or speak lies about you to discredit Me.  What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort 

and they are uncomfortable.

Matthew 5:11 [The Message]

My father was a wonderful, wonderful man – a “salt of the earth” kinda guy.  He was a loyal friend, a hard-working provider – a man who would give you the shirt off his back if you really needed it.  Dad didn’t gush with affection – it just wasn’t his style.  He was strong, silent, and solid as a rock.

What Dad was not was a Christian.  His mother was a great woman of faith, his father was an atheist, and he was a youthful hell-raiser.  Grandma tried her best to raise her boys in the faith, but Grandpa had the greater influence, and both boys followed in his footsteps.  My father was more of an agnostic: he believed that God existed, he just didn’t have any use for the whole Christianity routine, and he wasn’t willing to talk about it. Period.

Dad began to mellow a bit as he got older.  I would often ask my parents to pray about one situation or another, and I remember the first time Dad said, “Will do!”  One Christmas, I decided that I was going to give my father a Bible.  I bought a nice leather one just like mine, colored some of my favorite verses of promise, wrapped it up with a card expressing my love, and sent it to him.

My father never said a word about his Christmas present that year.  In fact, he didn’t speak to me at all for about a month.  I learned from my mother that my gift sent him into a rage – his anger spewing out with , “What the hell is this?” and “Who does she think she is?”  For the rest of his life, he never mentioned that Bible. I knew that his anger wasn’t really at me.  It was fear – fear of God’s Word, fear of what it might ask of him.  The truth was, indeed, “too close for comfort.”