Which lie do you prefer? The one protecting a friend or loved one? Maybe, the one that hurts the intended. How about the lie you tell yourself? Behind the lies, our reasons are varied and myriad, yet false when measured against the person God created us to be. Jesus, in his ministry, convicted us of this falsity. And still, we play the game. I play the game.
Present concerns deliberate over a just society. A lovely thought accompanied by the sweet sound of a noble goal (the lie we tell our self). I think it’s a bit like looking at a small insect I believe to be benign until I place a magnifying glass over it and discover it is a termite eating away at my house. A just society built by and ruled by fallen men left unchecked by truth surely falls. Jesus said as much.
Society seeks conformity through the expression of its will. It attempts to change. Attaching to this equilibrium, conforming to its will is the lie we tell—to others, to self. If all conformed, where would we be? I think it is the wrong pursuit. Today’s culture disagrees.
Conformity is a poor conductor of truth. Whose “will shall be done?”
When I recite the Baptismal liturgy at church, the phrase “we will so order our lives after the example of Christ” appears. Today, too much time is spent ordering others and too little spent ordering our self. Grace is participatory. My faith demands I not simply know Christ but to become like Him. Not easy for a fallen creature hanging on edge ready to fall again. But when Christ’s hand lifts me from the cliff, shouldn’t I meet Him with equal effort?
Worse than the lie I tell is the lie I believe. I believe it to avoid offense. But truth intends to offend and God’s truth the most. And so offended, so convicted, I strive to be as the apostle John when he says, “He (Christ) must increase, but I must decrease.” A life in Christ must come to this. “How” is the hardest part of faith.
Whose “will shall be done?”
I yield to George MacDonald when he said, “Christ died to save us, not from suffering, but from ourselves; not from injustice, far less from justice, but from being unjust. He died that we might live—but live as He lives, by dying as He died who died to himself that He might live unto God. If we do not die to ourselves, we cannot live to God, and he that does not live to God, is dead.”
In the false truth I held, why should I not be offended and more? Does not God need my attention if I am to become as He desires?
What good is the lie I tell myself if I do not die to self and live unto God?
And so I pray, Thy will be done.
“Those who have ears to hear, let them hear” (Matthew 11:15, NKJV).