There is a story about a Presbyterian minister who, during WWII, kept watching different groups of people being carted off by the Nazis. First it was the homosexuals and gypsies, then prostitutes, then one religious group after another disappeared.
He was torn with regret each time he failed to say something in defense of these people. Every time he kept quiet and another group “disappeared” he would sink into depression and anguish about if he had just "said something", maybe these people would have been saved.
The pool of groups remaining to fight tyranny and evil grew smaller and smaller until one day. . .
They came for him and there was no one left to stand in HIS defense.
Now, in 2010, how much are we like that minister? How often do we hide our face or turn our eyes from indiscretions committed by those around us? We laugh nervously when someone brags about copying computer programs or blithely dismiss the contradiction of two pieces of conflicting information with a sheepish grin and mouth full of apologetic drivel (“Oh, well, you know how people are and the truth is probably somewhere in-between”).
Why do we do this? We are good people. We are just. We are kind. We are truthful. How can we sit silently, eyes lowered while these frontal assaults on our values are committed again and again by even our so-called friends? Worse yet, we continue to act as if our core principles got a big kiss and a hug instead of being severely beaten about the head and shoulders.
What is wrong? Why do we refuse to stand up and say something? We sit, mute; hoping against hope that if we can just keep our eyes closed long enough, the “evil” the “wrong” the “lie” will go away.
But it never does!
Are we embarrassed because we feel others will think us daft or stupid if we suddenly admit that what we saw/said/believed is wrong? Are we afraid that if we disagree with what's going on we will never regain our dignity or the respect of our family and friends? What is it that makes us sit in silence or more heinous, prompts us to make excuses for those we know do violence to our principles?
Everyone knows this internal "battleground of personal ethics" is a most uncomfortable place. People have made themselves physically ill by trying to come to terms with this apparent no-win situation. Suddenly we don’t know how or why we got here but we do know we are neck deep in the lies of others and we can’t see any egoistically "safe" way out. We are terrified and we think we are all alone.
But there is a way out. It’s actually quite deceptively simple, relatively painless and of such consummate joy when done that NO ONE who does it has ever wished to return to their former mod-us operand i.
It’s four little words. Nothing more. However, they are the SCARIEST words in the human mind regardless of language or culture. They have made saints tremble and Lords of the Earth shrink in abject horror and fear.
Four tiny little words – but once said, they bring the glaring light of truth pinpoint focused on the path back to our own self-respect. They give us the power to look directly into the face of tyranny and say “I am unafraid”.
What are these magic words?
I MADE A MISTAKE.
Once we admit to ourselves we did not see the truth, the truth reveals itself in every corner of our lives. Suddenly we are whole. We speak with authority. We attract the hearts and minds of the honorable and the respectful. We become more powerful than any liar or tyrant could ever hope to be and we see behind the curtain of deceit where the “wizards" are revealed to be naked and without substance.
Four little words have given us the strength to stand up for our values, what we believe in and what we know to be the truth.
