The Last Czar is a biography about the life of Czar Nicholas II, the last emperor of Russia. While his generals were brutally suppressing dissent, they told him civil unrest was the result of foreign influence and assured him his own people loved him.
The Czar didn’t have any other source of information so was completely unaware that his generals were not being truthful with him. Not a good position to be in.
When the Communists took over, he was caught by surprise and forced to abdicate. Sadly, the Bolsheviks eventually executed him and his entire family. It is a sad and tragic story.
Few of us are czars, but the same lack of honest feedback can be devastating. We need truth tellers around us in two critical areas.
The first area is horizontal and pertains to our relationships with people. We fill the role of friend, spouse, son or daughter, parent, employee or boss, coach or teammate.
The second area is vertical and pertains to our relationship with God. Our core identity is that of being a child of our Creator; embracing a new identity in Christ.
Maybe it’s because I hit 50 last year or maybe it’s because I have two grown sons living far from home, but I’ve been reflecting more and more on what got my attention in the last 30 years. Relationships are what make our lives rich and we all need feedback to make them as strong as possible.
The area of our relationship with God is perhaps even more critical. All of us live with a gap between what we profess or live outwardly and what is really going on in our heart. For some, this gap is small but for others the gap is rather large.
The danger is that this largely invisible gap is easy to conceal because we tend to focus on managing our external behavior with a highly trained filter. Dress nice, smile and be nice around church friends, drop some money in the offering plate and help out occasionally.
All those things are good but they don’t always accurately reflect what is going on beneath the surface. We need traveling companions who will ask us the hard questions and give us honest feedback.
“As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.” ~ Proverbs 27:17
God’s design to make us more like Jesus happens best when we journey together and engage in honest feedback.
Who are your traveling companions?
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© Richard Alvey and iLife Journey, 2012. All rights reserved.
A ragamuffin in awe of God's grace and glory... pursuing real life in Jesus.
iLife Journey 
Awesome blog! I love that verse. Accountabilty is vital in the Christian journey. I know it is in mine.
Thanks Chad! And thanks for sharing the journey!
A great post. I find an honest wife often gives me healthy feedback. When I was a pastor I would sometimes congratulate myself on a “good sermon” only to find my wife had some pointed, and usually solid, criticisms to make.
Thanks Pieter. Very true about our wives, they do tend to know us better than anyone.