Why is the truth so important?
Why can’t I just use what I think is best and run with it?
Because untruths trap. Lies destroy. What you don’t know that you could know can hurt you.
This truth was never more front and center in my life than the day Mark and I sat in a room with Lisa’s entire medical support team to deal with vocabulary and processes that that I didn’t want to hear. We talked about medical directive, end of life, hospice. We had a choice to make. We could run away from the truth. We could pretend that a reality did not exist, postpone difficult decisions, and try to make this all go away. But then we would live more scared that our tenuous hold on what we wanted wouldn’t last.
Or we could ask for the truth. We could make our decisions by truth, and live the truth, as hard and unwanted as it was.
My mind went back to the verse that I had used every time some doctor or educator had used a label or diagnosis that I didn’t want to be true:
The truth will set you free. John 8:32
Whenever you face the worst that life brings, one thing your heart craves is freedom from the worst it can do.
Truth frees.
I have seen it repeatedly. If I cling to something that I want that is not true, I must protect the lies I believe, support them, defend them, rationalize them. Truth stands up for herself. When I accept the truth, she gives me the key to open my self-made prison.
Truth frees.
I told that circle of very professional doctors and highly experienced counsellors that I had tried to support Lisa with all the truth that I could know. I shared the verse that defined that support: The truth will set you free. I told them that as much as my heart didn’t want the truth they were sharing, I willed myself to hear it because I desperately needed the freedom it would give so that I could share that freedom with Lisa. The stiffness and careful talk ceased. They shared their hearts with us, spoke to us as parents with more love and sensitivity than I have ever heard in a professional circle. There were tears and hugs and many affirmations.
It was the first gift of the truth.
To the best of my ability, I want to hear the truth, live the truth, and share the truth because I want others to know how truth frees.
I could give you so many other examples of where my practiced lies about myself or circumstances trapped me. I still get caught there sometimes.
But in my heart, I want the truth, as raw and unraveling as it sometimes feels, because I know that nothing but the truth will share the freedom I need to live in some new reality or understanding.
Don’t misunderstand this to mean that you can receive all the details and answers that you want wrapped up in nice little package called truth. God only gives us the truth we need for the moment or the day or the season. It never feels enough until you live it. The more you trap yourself by trying to obligate God to give you more than what He says you need, the smaller your prison cell becomes.
Truth frees. It always will. It will take you on a journey of growing and maturity like nothing else. Never turn away from the truth. She is your friend and the Guide who helps you know the truth will hold you tightly when it is everything you don’t want to hear.
Here is my blessing for you today, this week, or whenever you need the truth and her freedom:
Sharing the journey,
Debbie