When Someone Tells Us Something, We Can Choose to Believe.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I remember sitting in the pew of a much beloved church listening to a young preacher say to his audience, “it is sometimes hard to believe the truth when we are presented with it.”  He was speaking of the life of Christ and how people today find it hard to believe that He is not a myth, a fable, a story from ancient times.  He explained that “because we did not did not see Jesus, because we do not see Jesus, because we cannot touch his body or look into His gaze, our humanity finds it hard to believe.”

That is true of Christ

That can also be true of us

So often, truth tellers are seen as rocking the boat, sinking the ship, stirring the pot…because many times, truth brings with it a multitude of other thoughts, emotions, actions, feelings which are not comfortable….truth can be messy

But, there is a reason that we are taught to tell the truth….

Because it sets you free….

And, until you are free within truth, you are captured in this world

And, when you are captured in this world, you are in no way ready for the next one…

I believe this with all of my heart and it has come at great cost to me personally

When you lay bare the ugliness of yourself, your heart, your spirit and your past, there are those who would turn away from you, your ugliness….

When, in your heart you are coming clean so that you may be washed whiter than snow in Jesus, there will be a bucket of dirty water left behind as evidence that you were….are….not pristine white as God would have you to be…

But, isn’t that the purpose of it all?

To lay bare your soul so He can cover you in light? And truth?

I would not have it any other way having walked through the fire of truth…it is a never ending journey and one which will remain a part of my life all of my days….

The good thing about the truth is that it remains the truth whether anyone else believes you or not…

Truth will stand when the world burns down….like a pillar reaching heavenward, and I want to be on the side of it even when it is uncomfortable

I want to role model that for my children

I want my husband to find comfort in it

I want to humbly walk toward it…truth…each and every day of my life

My daughter said just this week, “Mama, they don’t’ believe you are telling the truth.  They don’t believe I am telling the truth.  If they believed, they would not keep asking.”

Why, when someone tells us something, do we find is simpler to dis-believe?

In my personal experience, those times I dis-believed was most often when I personally was un-believable….and, the more I am believable, the more likely I am to believe another person….

In one of my very first clinical mental health counseling classes, the professor said that so much mental illness comes from an individual who has not been allowed to express their truth because they feared they would be rejected and/or abandoned for their truth.

She challenged us that if we sit in our counseling chairs making judgments in our heads as our client’s pour out their lives to us, we were not in the right profession.  And, she asked us to get out of it.

She said chose to believe what your client tells you.  Encourage them to walk in truth with you as you walk with them to wellness.  If there is any un-truth in their story, it will come out on the journey and they will be able to put it to rest as they walk to wholeness.  And, if there is truth in what they share, you have blessed them with your belief in them.

I like that

I think of that often as I live with my husband and my children

And, I want to be that for them

I want them to see that I choose to trust in God carefully and on purpose

And, in truth

Because, in truth….it is a choice I make

I choose to believe….

 

Blessings,

Lesa