Don't Tell People Things That Aren't True

Don’t tell people things that aren’t true.

When people say, “Believe what you need to to get you through,” I’m insulted. God help us all if we’re just believing whatever we like to help us through. That kind of thinking works for some things like performing or taking a test or walking into a crowded room, but not for living life. That’s a load of garbage.

Of course, it’s not always conscious feigning, say, in the face of tragedy or death. For instance, before my beloved older son, David, died this year in May, I had no conscious desire to pretend he was going to be okay, when the truth was, he was not. I have no desire to imagine we’re all going to be in heaven together, if there really is no God and no heaven. 

Sometimes on social media, I see posts that tell women: God has your man waiting for you. Just believe! And sitting at my computer in my office, you can be sure I’m shouting out loud: “Don’t tell them that! You can’t promise that. And when it doesn’t happen, they’ll be angry at God, not you.”

If you tell people God wants them to be happy in a long and prosperous life, that it includes marriage and money and good health, just know: that promise has to cut across all people. All cultures. All socioeconomic levels. If you’re talking about what God wants for people – it’s all people. If it’s theologically true for some, it must be theologically true for all.  

Oh, we’ve told ourselves and others so many things about God that just aren’t true. I’m still unpacking them all and will for years to come.

But here’s where I’ve been for a long time and now, in the face of my son’s death even more so: Jesus told us He is Truth. He didn’t just tell the truth. Or His truth. Or bring the truth.

But in fact, He is Truth itself.

 Did you get that? Jesus is Truth. 

“I am the way, the truth, the life,” He said. And Truth is what is real. Reality is truth. They go hand-in-hand. Re.al.i.ty.

I have no desire to believe what isn’t true, but I know that complete comprehension of truth is not possible for us. What we get is God. And God tells us that He’s the Truth we’re looking for. 

Mystery of mysteries. 

Now, of course, we’re going to say things we didn’t realize are not true. But for Pete’s sake, don’t perpetuate the ones that are clearly untrue.

I have so much more to say on this. But let me pause and get myself a glass of water and some Aleve. 

I’m real because God is so real.
~ Nancy