As a writer and someone who likes to encourage others, I am always looking for positive, flowery ways to sprinkle some encouragement for others. But the truth isn’t always pretty or easy. The truth is sometimes hard and painful and in blunt force. Jesus didn’t beat around the bush; he didn’t sugar-coat it and if you’ve read the Old Testament, you will know that God didn’t either. We have slipped away from our willingness to hear and deal with the hard truth. We want it pretty, easy and disguised in dripping sweetness and political correctness or we don’t want to listen. Sociologically speaking, we prefer to avoid what is termed the shadow world; you know, street people, the poor, the needy, the hungry, the sick, the incarcerated, the abused, the uneducated, the addicted, and so on. If we don’t see it or hear about it, then we can just carry on in our own selfish little bubble. No one wants to let their guard down for fear of the very things they avoid. We all do it. Yet what