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Saying What Needs to Be Said
Weekly Edition #63: April 8th, 2026
Verse I Like:
“Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.”
Weekly Dose
If you are like me, you struggle with saying what you know you should say.
Not because you don’t see it or don’t understand it. But because saying it costs more than nothing.
Comfort, approval, position, self-image.
Forthrightness is not just honesty—it is honesty that assumes a consequence.
We avoid it because we know exactly what it could require of us.
Quotes I Like:
“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.”
“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”
“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”
Mane Message
In the Bible, the prophet Nathan takes this idea of forthrightness to its fullest form.
He is sent by the Lord to confront King David. Not just a man, but Israel’s beloved king. This comes after David arranges the death of Uriah the Hittite and takes Bathsheba as his own.
It is not a casual conversation or a safe setting. Nathan begins by telling a story.
There were two men in a certain city. One rich, with flocks and herds beyond measure.
The other poor, with nothing but a single little ewe lamb.
This lamb was not just livestock—it grew up with the poor man. It ate from his table. It drank from his cup. It lay in his arms.
It was like a daughter to him.
And when a traveler came to the rich man, instead of taking from his own abundance, the rich man took the poor man’s lamb to prepare as a meal.
David hears this and burns with anger. As king, as judge, as a man who knows right from wrong—he immediately condemns the rich man. David goes as far as to say that the rich man should die.
And then Nathan removes the distance, and tells David, “You are the man.”
The story was about no one else—it was about David taking what was not his, despite already having more than enough.
This is what true forthrightness looks like.
Truth, delivered with precision, in a way that cannot be ignored.
Nathan speaks, David listens, and the truth does the heavy lifting towards repentance.
Weekly Ponder
What is worse, speaking the truth with its consequences, or living out the lie?
Why are the consequences and risks of speaking the truth outweighed relative the consequences and risks of remaining silent?
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