Dad taking a break from building their shed to hug one of his beloved grandsons.

In our culture, do we tell the truth?

Today is my dad’s sixty-seventh birthday. Throughout his life, his careers have included everything from carpentry and cable splicing to singing and songwriting. At his core, though, my dad is a thinker.

If you know me well, you’ve probably heard me talk about Myers Briggs personality types. If you’re familiar with this psychological system of typing people, my dad is an INTP. Nicknames for this personality type include the Thinker, the Architect, and the Logician.

According to 16Personalities, “…some of the most influential philosophers and scientists of all time have been Logicians.”

In Gifts Differing, Isabel Briggs Myers says, “INTPs are perhaps the most intellectually profound of all the types.”

Recently, my dad wrote this profound poem about our culture. I pray you’ll take a moment out of your busy day to read it.

GLASS HOUSES

The trouble with glass houses

As time has surely shown

Is you cannot make a ruckus

You mustn’t throw a stone

And if your neighbor builds a house

That you know cannot last

You must hold your tongue in silence

Lest a stone at you is cast.

And so, it goes as time goes by

And other houses built

That no one says, “You build on sand—

The glass will twist and tilt.”

Before long, there’s a city

That one strong storm could fell

Where we learn to live in silence

And the truth we never tell.

But the storm will come,

And the glass will break,

And the houses all will fall.

And Truth and Wisdom watch and weep

As no one speaks at all.

We’ve a pact that won’t be broken—

“I’m okay, and you’re okay.”

Who’s to say what’s right or wrong?

No one’s going the wrong way.

So we ride lies to Destruction

No one saying, “Don’t go there.”

We pretend it’s just misfortune

When we end up in despair.

But one honest child could tell us

As we flee from Wisdom’s school

That it’s we who end up broken

When we’re breaking all the rules.

~Mike Litzau

Antique illustration: Conservatory

CLOSING THOUGHTS AND A CALL TO ACTION

This morning, when I opened the YouVersion app on my phone, this verse appeared:

“But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13, ESV).

I looked up Hebrews 3:13 in other translations, including EASY:

“…help each other to be strong every day. Today, you can still hear God’s message. While that is still true, do not refuse to obey God. Do not think that sin will not hurt you. That is a lie.”

Did you find Dad’s poem compelling? If so, will you share his poem and “help each other to be strong every day?”