We face an insidious danger.
And while it’s true, none of us will get out of this life alive, I don’t believe this is even the most potent danger we face today.
This danger is pervasive and seething in its deception. It cloaks itself as honorable and wears a convincing masquerade.
It just sounds good. Right.
Relative Truth.
It’s the common phrases of “Live Your Truth” or “You Do You”.
We hear them all throughout our daily lives. On signs, in social media posts, encouraged by retailers and greedily accepted by consumers.
We want, crave being accepted for who we are. We want to meet someone at face value and appreciate them for the skills and assets they bring to the conversation and our life. And we want the same extended to us in return. We yearn for a place where we can show up and be completely and wholly transparent and honest. Putting everything on the table and accepted for all of it—flaws and all.
And this is the good truth in this movement. Because, isn’t this what the body of Christ should be doing? Being open and vulnerable enough to meet each other in the middle of our flaws. Sadly, too often, we feel like we have to show up with a glossed and air brushed version of our true selves, leaving each of us with an even deeper craving and need to be known. This only perpetrates our desire to be wholly transparent and to seek the people who will accept us regardless. Breeding a culture that has told us they will accept and welcome us, asking nothing in return but easy love and acceptance.
The need to be known is not a bad thing. It’s a necessary and good thing.
But there is a hidden danger and agenda. Because within that craving to be known and accepted, we have allowed an insidious lie to slither it’s way in.
Relative Truth.
We tell ourselves to “Live Your Truth”, but within this phrase is more than just a desire to be known.
It’s a lie that says whoever, whatever, in all things, we should live our lives according to this truth.
But this truth is not THE truth.
This truth tells us we don’t need to change. We’re good exactly as we are. No one should judge or tell us we need to change, because anything less than accepting this personal truth is a failure of tolerance.
This truth gives us a core permission that it doesn’t matter the choices we make, the opinions we share, the battles we fight, or our beliefs because we are living our truth. We can think, dress, speak, love, desire in whatever way is right for us and if someone doesn’t agree, well, they just aren’t tolerant of what we believe to be true about ourselves.
Whether each person takes this to its logical conclusion or not, this is the core result of this statement.
We fall into a trap that lulls us into the belief that there is no need to change who we are. And instead, choosing to live the truth we believe and claim about ourselves, we close ourselves off to the true transformation that should always and continually be happening within our lives and heart.
This is the work and truth and change of the Holy Spirit, the continual transformation of Christ in our lives. The molding of the clay on the Potter’s wheel. This is the Truth we should be claiming and living.
I do believe that there are many people who look at a phrase such as “Live your truth” as a manifestation of what God is doing in their lives and their intention behind this phrase is an honorable one.
But one can’t take a phrase that the world has made their own and redefine the terms and expect the rest of the world to know that they mean something different.
We can’t live our truth because to live our truth is to say we accept the sin we were born into. The depravity that our lives would be without the saving grace of a Savior. Our truth is worthless without Christ.
Yet God.
Yet God.
Yet God.
Because with God, our truth, becomes His glorious Truth. Only He can take something that is perverted and shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near His presence and saves our souls. Creates in us a beautiful perfume of heart healing and transformation that is so much more than skin deep.
To believe in the “Live your truth” movement is to believe that we are infallible. We are in no need of change and should be wholly accepted for who we are. To believe in this movement is to believe you have no need of a Savior.
Because your truth becomes enough.
To believe in God’s perfect truth is to believe in the power of transformation. That we don’t have to stay where we are. That we aren’t destined for the sameness of sin and the chains this world binds upon us. That He is working in our lives in ways we can’t even begin to imagine and will only see the power of His work the longer and closer we walk with Him.
This is freedom.
This is living.
This is an unshackled life.
This is the power of living in God’s Truth.
This is where we should be meeting people. This is where we should be communing and fellowshipping. This is where we should arrive, wholly exposed and transparent. This is where we should be meeting in the middle of our mess.
This meeting is beautiful. Needed. Commanded. Holy. Known.
And in this meeting, we are changed. We are strengthened and encouraged through the love, grace and exhortation of God moving through His word and people.
This, this is Truth. To not be left as we were or even as we are.
What a beautiful, glorious Truth.
