Honyaks can be explosive.
This is the down-side to living in unvarnished authenticity. When you have nothing to hide, sometimes you "let it all hang out" ... and that is not always a good thing. Opinions are voiced frequently and loudly in a Honyak household, and at times unchecked comments can hurt. To those unfamiliar to Honyak passion it can be taken for uncouth ignorance. Disagreement to unfamiliar ears can come across as vitriolic anger, and common excitement can be seen as overzealous lunacy. So growing up Honyak, you must learn to have both thick skin and the ability to forgive and apologize. In other words, you have to be willing to honestly love the people who God has placed around you. You must care more for maintaining relationships than you do being right on an issue. You have to say "Yes" to brotherly (phileo) love! To help explain what I am trying to say, let me describe the perfect Honyak sport: Rugby! It is messy, dirty, sometimes violent and can be dangerous. It is head-smashing fun! And for most rugby players, fashion is the last thing on their mind. As one observer asked, "Why are Rugby players sill wearing shorts circa 1980?" The answer: they don't care - - they are too busy tackling, spitting and rolling in the mud. The beauty of this sport is that after the match is over and the blood has been spilt, both teams head over to the local pub to share in some fine rugby camaraderie: Songs, Suds and Slaps on the Back. You must learn to leave all grievances behind if you are ever going to enjoy this sport. I am afraid our society doesn't know how to do this anymore. If you disagree with anyone on any issue it becomes civil war! Instead of working hard to maintain relationships, we fight for being right. We want to be right so bad these days that we will destroy the dignity of people who disagree with us with no qualms whatsoever. One of the scariest bible verses is found in Matthew 24:10-12; it describes what the world will become like as the end draws near: "People will turn away from the faith, they will betray and hate each other, and because of the increase in wickedness the LOVE OF MOST WILL GROW COLD." This is where we are, people can't disagree anymore without hatred. People can't argue without saying "I'm sorry." We fight to be right! I have another example of what I am trying to get across: The more I read about him, the more I think Martin Luther the Reformer was a true Honyak. Even though he argued fiercely, he loved those whom he argued with just as fiercely. Yes, ideas and doctrines really mattered to him, but so did the souls of the people he disagreed with. Case in point: his main enemy in the earlier years of his reformation days was the Priest Johann Tetzel. He was the man who sold indulgences for a steep price and through his blatant manipulation he would rob peasants blind: "Have mercy on your dead parents. They bore you, nourished you, brought you up, left your their fortunes. Will you let them lie in purgatorial flames? Or will you give a few coins to secure their eternal bliss." This provoked Martin Luther to unrestrained fury: "I want to be calm, but I cannot master myself. I am driven in the midst of an uproar." This fury led him to write his famous 95 Theses which openly condemned the selling of indulgences. So you would think Luther would be the arch enemy of Tetzel, right? What could cause you to hate someone more than lying about someone's dead relatives to earn a profit? Well in his later years when Tetzel was breathing his last, and as he lie in a state of depression abandoned by most his friends and family, he received a note from Martin Luther that "absolved him of blame for hawking indulgences - - and expressed interest in the eternal well being of his soul." Wow, what a lesson for all people living in a media age that is riddled with divisive political vitriol and reprehensible twitter backlash on any opponents. We must never forget we are all humans, we are all flawed, we must forgive? Honyak Living allows for opinions to be openly shared, but for those who are wrong to be willing to admit fault and take blame when necessary. Honestly, who do we think we are? Jesus Christ?
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