PRICKLY ROSES

"Rebuke a wise man and he will love you." My mentor, Cecil Bean, once told me that the only way to distinguish between mockers and wise men was to rebuke them. If they hated you for your critique then they prove themselves fools, but if they respond with humility and teachability, they prove themselves your friends. Many relationships begin with this sort of exchange. One person initiates a conversation; a meeting is established, and a likeness discovered. But then the test: someone attempts to cross a barrier that was once "none of his business." How the other responds will measure the lifetime of the friendship. A guy once told me that he wanted to be my friend rather than a disciple. I told him that I was looking to make friends out of disciples and not the contrary.
If we want to make friends from disciples rather than attempt to disciple our friends, then we must learn to present prickly roses. Solomon tells us, "In the end, people appreciate frankness more than flattery." We like flowery praise but if there is no prick of the conscience, then it will wither and die. Hebrews reminds us to “spur one another on towards love and good deeds.” You cannot spur a friend in love if you don’t also offer a stinging kick to his rear end.

“Faith is what someone knows to be true, whether they believe it or not.” Flannery O'Connor