Truth Telling

I've had it in my mind to write this blog for several months now. The content is derived from assorted experiences in medical school and though I have not formally written on this issue I have had many thoughts and conversations about it and find it very interesting.

Just as Jesus opened our eyes to see that murder is not just killing, but it is also anger toward a brother; and adultery is not simply sexual promiscuity but starts in the eyes - so living a life of honesty - of true truth-telling, is not just not lying or not cheating, but it is much deeper and much more difficult than simply NOT doing something - but intentionally DOING the right thing. Let me explain.

Over the last few months I've learned from myself as well as others that we all say so many things with the intent to manipulate - we victimize ourselves, we seek to illicit pity, we seek illicit praise, we feed our insecurities – and all of this is obvious in the way we talk - in the very words we choose to use.

Jesus said in Matthew 12:34 that "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." I confess, the more I pay attention to the words of my mouth, the more I am able to see that there is still definite darkness in my heart. It has been humbling and encouraging – humbling to see how even when I am thinking I'm doing well, there is still more work to be done, and encouraging to know that the Lord is still taking me higher.

So, here are a couple quick examples of the slyness of dishonesty:

Oftentimes, when we are questioned about our priorities, say, someone invites you to a church function or something, we often give a patterned response of "oh, well, I'd like to, but I can't" or "Thanks, but I'm not sure what's going on yet." To say "I can't" is almost never true – because it implies either lack of transportation or something that is physically preventing us from doing it. At least, the more I say "I can't" the more I'm convinced that it's just a lie. Even if it's money or time or transportation, there is almost ALWAYS a way to do something. The real translation of "I can't" is probably more like "It's just not a priority for me." Whatever the potential response, I think it is better to just be honest, than to lie and think that your lie will be received better.

Another example was brought to my attention a couple weeks ago when I continually told a story of an event that I witnessed at the medical office I was working at. I had seen someone do something that offended me and really affected my respect for this person. In spite of the Holy Spirit continually saying, "you should not be telling this story" I did anyway. I later realized that I was telling the story simply because I knew it would get a rise out of others as well. It was an emotionally charged story and people would think that I was a good story teller or that I am special because of my unique insight into medical mishaps. Basically, the Lord showed me that the reason it was so hard for me NOT to tell the story was because I was insecure about people accepting me and I wanted the attention I could get from sharing a story of someone else's error. In essence, I was not covering this person's shame, but exploiting it for my own glory. How horrible is that?!

So, the point of this testimony is to say that telling the truth is not just in the facts that you relay, but in the motivation we have for saying or not saying something. Am I truly guarding my tongue so that everything I say is with a genuine heart of love and compassion, both for my friends AND my enemies? Am I speaking as if I were saying the very words of the Lord?

As it says in James, if anyone can truly control his tongue, he is perfect and able to control the whole body as well. I believe that crucifying our tongues is one of the hardest and yet most profitable things we can ask the Lord to do for us. After all, the Lord spoke and the universe came into being – and we are created in His image. Imagine the authority that the Lord would give to us if we sought with all our hearts to use the power of our words exclusively for the Lord and His Kingdom! There is tremendous power in our words and I believe the Lord really is raising a generation who has such a chokingly tight rein on their tongues that they are completely under the direction of the Spirit. The flesh will have no outlet in our words anymore. Hallelujah!

Lastly, I'm becoming more and more convinced that Jack Nicholson's classic line "You want the truth?! You can't handle the truth!" is quite true of many people – myself included. Since we really have not completely learned to put our faith and trust in God, we end up putting it in man. And since we do not truly know how to live on "every word that comes from God" we live on the words of man. This makes us incredibly vulnerable to man and, consequently, insecure in who we are and God's sovereignty – which then takes away our ability to love with the love of God, and so we end up making judgments that are founded in the wisdom of man and the world, and not the wisdom of God and heaven. We may take offense to simple things that people say to us – even if they are true and spoken from a heart of love.

The conclusion to the matter, then, is that it is of the utmost importance that we take our language seriously – not only for the sake of our relationships with one another, but even more so that we might be trusted with greater anointing and authority from the Lord. We want to honor him in all that we do and say – and it seems the latter may be the more challenging.