Truth Telling
Truth Telling
In the beginning God told Adam and Eve that they were free to eat of every tree in the Garden of Eden but one (Genesis 2:16-17). One tree belonged to God alone. If they ate of this forbidden tree, they would die. That was reality! Eventually Adam and Eve decided they couldn’t live with God deciding the nature of what was good and bad. They wanted to choose what was good and bad for themselves. They wanted to determine their own reality. So Adam and Eve became the first truth “spinners.” It began with lying to themselves about the true nature of the tree and God’s command concerning it. In effect, the spin was, “God is holding out on us.” That spin led to other spins, and before you know it they were hiding from and lying to God and one another. But God refuses to let lies have the last word. God looked for Adam and Eve in an attempt to reconcile their broken relationship, reclaim truth and restore reality (Genesis 3:9, 15). The rest of the Bible is the story of how God mends the tear in the fabric of creation who began with a lie about reality.
Like Adam and Eve before us, we are truth spinners who want to define our own realities. We pad expense accounts with rationalizations and denials. We back out of commitments with blame and deceit. Advertisers, corporations, nongovernment agencies, educational and religious institutions spin the truth. Everything from ruining the environment to insider trading gets the spin. It’s not hard to understand why people don’t know who or what to believe. But lies that substitute for reality don’t last forever.
Truth alone has staying power. Jesus says telling the truth begins with small things. Don’t say yes when you intend to back out of it: “Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one” (Matthew 5:37). Begin to reclaim the truth about yourself and your words by honoring the Creator and reality as he defines it.
Reflection Questions
- How do you live out God’s reality about the goodness of telling the truth?
- When do you use a sliding scale of honesty, exaggeration or partial truths to get what you want?
- How has someone’s honesty or lack of it affected you?
- When has it cost you to be honest? What as that like for you?
Spiritual Exercises
- Take some uninterrupted time to assess your honesty. Think back over the past week. Where have you been tempted to stretch the truth, take advantage of a privilege, break a commitment or gossip? What do you see about yourself ? Where is it hardest for you to tell the truth? • Write a prayer of confession in your journal. Or confess your sin to a trusted friend. Ask him or her to pray for you.
- Practice one of these habits for the coming week: (1) not exaggerating, (2) not gossiping or (3) not rationalizing. • What is it like for you to do this?
- What lies do you tend to tell yourself ? What tapes do you play in your head that make you feel worthless, inadequate and unloved? Talk to God about what it is like to give space in your head and heart for these lies. • Turn to Psalm 139. What sort of thoughts does God have about you? Replace the lies you listen to with the truth of what God says about you.
- When you become aware of having told a lie, apologize and make amends. This sort of attention to confession softens the heart to the reality of truth.
Resources on Truth Telling
Everything Belongs by Richard Rohr
Invitation to a Journey by Robert Mulholland
