I go out of my way to adopt healthy behaviors. -Truth
I am fat. - Lie
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I agree with the Democratic party. -Truth
I agree with the Republican party. -Truth
I am a Republican or Democrat. -Lie
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Today is a good day. -Truth
Today is a bad day. -Truth
How I feel about Today matters. -Lie
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I am right. -Truth
I am wrong. -Truth
I define right and wrong. -Lie
You’re familiar with the game, right? I come up with two things that are true about myself, and then one lie, and you have to guess the lie. I always hated this game, because you always have someone who just cannot come up with anything, and they sit there trying to figure out one thing that is true about themselves and they just can’t.
Then there are the people who you know are lying about all three things, or are at least lying through omission. Like, “oh I totally went to prom with a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model,” which is true, but it’s only half true. They went to prom with someone who was featured in the background of a shot of as an extra, but since they were paid they were technically a Sports Illustrated model, and they were technically wearing a swimsuit, so… truth? (That would still be impressive…) And there are the people who just tell whatever story they can think of to get attention, and it may be true, and really heart breaking, but they kind of forgot this is just a game. Like, “I was adopted from a third world country, and still wake up in the middle of the night crying from memories of my family.” And everyone is just sitting there like, “God, I hope that’s not true, but also- this is a game right? Like, this isn’t counseling?” We’re supposed to say fun things, like- my dog’s name was McPoops cause everytime he ate McDonald’s he would diarrhea on the carpet. I’m not supposed to then finish that story with- “so we put him down, and my parent’s didn’t tell me until I got home from school, and I failed geometry that year because I was so depressed, but no one ever understood why I didn’t do my work, so my parents thought I was stupid and I had to get a tutor, and ever since then I’ve felt like my parent’s think I’m stupid.” Cause that would be super sad, right? (Also, stop feeding McDonald’s to dogs.)
But the point is, that game should be called “Two half truths, and something you wish were true.” Because functionally that is a more accurate title.
We all have a tendency to do that, don’t we?
We all think of things that are true in our lives and then cut out all the bad stuff, or sometimes all the good stuff, to make the story juicier. It’s not just news stations that edit the stories, it’s us, because if we really accepted the complexity of the truth we wouldn’t be able to function with the reality of who we were.
I recently drove through this part of town where I used to do ministry. When I was there, I remember feeling this oppressive, scary, evilness to the whole thing. There was a lot of gang violence in the area, and a lot of poverty. There were kids that I took up to camp who were excited because the cabins had beds for everyone and they hadn’t slept in their own bed in years. They had shared a bed with another sibling and their mother, in a tiny one bedroom apartment. I remember those stories vividly, and for years those were the stories I would tell. And those stories are all true- verifiably, factually true. But they aren’t the truth. The truth fills in all the gaps of history with moments where I had the best nachos of my entire life, or I rode my bike through this beautiful nature trail that ran through town, or I had bionicos for the first time and the mango was so ripe it redefined what mangos were supposed to be. And the hours of video games, and basketball, and pizza, and the dairy down the street.
It’s almost as if there are two streams of reality, and both are completely true. One stream disregards the good in favor of the dark, gritty, heavy moments, and the other disregards the bad in favor of the beauty.
And if there are two streams, I feel like most of us are like the old fat people in the lazy river at the water park. Half man, half inner-tube, floating listlessly with the current. Because of our histories, we’ve decided a certain stream to rest in. Maybe you were hurt by a close friend and now everyone seems disingenuous, so when you come across disingenuous people you think “yep, I was right.” I know that’s how I felt for a while. And you’re completely, factually, right. People are disingenuous, self-serving, and mostly just jerks. But you have to ask yourself, are people who do things that hurt me more evil, or idiot? Did that person stab me in the back because they wanted to hurt me, or because they stupidly didn’t even consider how others would feel?
At this point, if you’re like me, you’ll probably say, “well, both! They’re a bunch of evil idiots!” Which makes me wonder, if people can be intentionally hurtful, and unintentionally hurtful at the same time, could they possibly also be nice, kind, loving? funny, forgiving, charitable? Could people be part monster and part angel? A little bit of dust and ash, and a little bit of the image of God?
I think people have a problem with truth. Whenever the issue has come up with people I know in church, there is a certain reluctance about it. You inevitably think of a person in your head, and you think “what would it look like to be honest with this person?” and it seems very common for people to then think, “well, I’d have to tell them how horrible of a person they are, and how much I dislike them.”
Well… that’s one lazy river to float on. Let’s try the other.
“You know, everyone makes mistakes. And we need to be forgiving. I know I mess up sometimes, but God used my mistakes for his kingdom- and that’s why I think Hitler wasn’t as bad as we make him out to be.” Um- wait. This river seems to have some problems too. *
There is truth flowing through our lives. Truth can be hard to swallow, and can be affirming of who we are at our very core. Truth can say, “you’re unhealthy, you need to lose weight,” at the same time it says, “you are beautiful, and worthy of love and affection.” Truth can say, “These people are evil, abhorrent, and far from God,” and at the same time say, “they have been offered grace, and love, and identity in Christ, and I hope to see them in heaven.” The Israelites are a perfect example of this, did they have things all together? By no means. Were they God’s chosen people? Absolutely.
Have you driven down a road in the middle of the day and seen kids playing in the park, the sun shining, people walking, riding bikes, flowers blooming, and birds chirping, and then driven down the same road at night and be horrified by the neon lights, the shadows that dance in the parks, the people hiding in the corner? The truth has not changed, but the light has.
The truth invites us into polyvalence. It invites us into non-mutual exclusivity. (It invites us into all sorts of ambiguous vocab words that means something to me but probably nothing to you.) The truth says you are forgiven and loved, and you cannot remain the way that you are. They are horrible, and they are lovely. Shadows exist in the day time, lights shine in the dark.
The truth says sometimes there are two streams of truth.
So, the lie?
The lie is that what you see, and the world you perceive, is the only truth. The lie tells you to stay stuck in your lazy river inner-tube of critique of others, pride for yourself. The lie says the world is filled with evil and heartbreak, kids dying, civil war. Or it says the world is only Disneyland, big houses, cable television, air conditioning and healthcare. The lie says you are your political leanings, you are your sexual preferences, you are your gender, your race, your history. The lie says you are the most important, you are the definer. Or it says, you are completely valueless, completely arbitrary, that you are at your core, temporary.
But you, thank God, are not the truth. You are simply you, floating through the rivers of reality, perceiving and understanding only what is presented to you. All I suggest is that you stop looking inward to find something that moves around you. Rather than remain in your river, allow the waves and breakers to crash over you as you navigate a world of reality that is not tame, or one sided. Rather than float on the surface, be immersed in the living water that rages beneath you.
Footnote: I am not a post-modernist. And though I believe in Polyvalence, that there are multiple things we know as true, (and sometimes other people’s points of view are equally true, though we have created a false dichotomy in order to push out things that challenge what we believe), I don’t believe in the absence of absolute truth. I believe Christ is the truth. He understands the whole of reality in ways we are incapable of understanding. When He speaks there is no argument. When you’ve got laws that say stuff like, “stone adulterous people” (Lev 10:20), and then tells Hosea to marry an adulterous wife (the whole book of Hosea), you do what he says, you put down the stones and you change your idea of truth. He is the definer- which I’m sure is a whole other post that I could’ve written, but I didn’t. *shrug*
*Editor’s note: can we use any other name? Anyone other than Hitler? Is there someone else pretty bad?
|| Posted by Alex ||
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