Monday 2nd February - Truth & Lies

DAILY BYTE

Anyone who enjoys watching movies (as I do), will know that life can be very unlike it is portrayed by Hollywood movies. Hollywood exists behind a smokescreen of special effects and play-pretend, and so much of what happens in movies that we accept as normal, is in fact extremely unrealistic.

I came upon an e-mail recently that humorously depicted how far removed Hollywood can be from reality. The list was entitled, ‘If life was really like Hollywood would have us believe,’ and here are a few excerpts from it:
‘A man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating but will wince when a woman tries to clean his wounds.’
‘It is always possible to park directly outside the building you are visiting.’
‘All bombs are fitted with electronic timing devices with large red readouts so you know exactly when they will go off.’
‘It does not matter if you are heavily outnumbered in a fight involving martial arts; your enemies will patiently wait to attack you one by one by dancing around in a threatening manner until you have knocked out their predecessors.’

However, it is not just Hollywood that struggles with the truth, for in many ways Hollywood mirrors our own very real struggles with what is true and what is fabrication. This week we will be focussing on our struggle with truth and lies, because it so directly affects our spirituality. For living with lies can quite literally bring our souls into darkness.

When I was little, every now and then I would wake up when all the lights were switched off and get scared. My imagination would run riot until every floorboard creak became a hideous monster out to grind my bones and swallow me whole! I would work myself up into such a state of fear that every dark corner seemed to be filled with menace and evil.

When I could stand it no longer, I would shout out to my dad asking him to come switch a light on (I wouldn’t want to put my feet on the floor because I suspected something horrible was lurking under my bed). My dad would shout back and say something like, ‘Son, you are 30 years old now – you shouldn’t be afraid of the dark anymore!’

Nah – I’m just kidding, I was only about 5 or 6, and so my dad would get up to switch a light on for me. My fears would vanish almost instantly with the coming of the light. I could now see for myself that the floorboards were creaking because they were old, that the strange shape in the corner of my room was my school bag, and that although there was something horrible lurking under the bed, it was only last month’s cheese & ham sandwich.

The point is that my fear would be gone with the light because I would then know the truth – that there was nothing out there in the darkness to hurt me. It was the darkness itself, or the lies that the darkness covered up, that left me quaking in my bed in fear. Lies and untruth can create a prison of darkness that limits and entraps us.

Jesus described himself as the light of the world – someone who would bring light into darkness. He then went onto develop this thought further by later saying, ‘You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.’ Jesus can bring to our souls a truth that will free us from the lies we live with daily.

Spend some time today thinking about your own particular struggle with ‘truth and lies’. Is there any part of you that labours in fear and darkness because you are living with an untruth? If so, take it to God in prayer.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Light of the world, we pray that through you we may know the truth and be set free by that truth. Help us to become aware of our own particular struggle with ‘truth and lies’ and set us on a journey of freedom and healing. Amen.

FOCUS READING

John 8:12

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”