Truth and Lies

A natural part of human imperfection is the difficultly we have finding and believing the truth. Since the beginning of time we have found ourselves coming up with questions and desperately seeking answers, but not everyone comes to the same conclusions. Therefore, someone must be wrong, and someone must be right. Sometimes a part of human life is falling for and believing lies--lies from other people, lies from ourselves, and lies from the great deceiver.

But for those who desire truth and constantly seek it, life becomes about taking up truth as you find it and become convinced by it. We find new truths through experience, education, revelation, etc. When we invest ourselves in processes that result in gaining knowledge, we are working towards breaking our chains of ignorance and false belief. We develop what we know of truth, and we strive for fuller freedom. It is our right, and our duty, to pursue this freedom.

I am a person deeply passionate for truth and understanding. I love to develop my perception of significant truths, and I also love gaining simple knowledges. While ignorance can be bliss, I truly do believe the truth sets people free. However, I will also admit that sometimes I am terrified by certain truths. I think a lot of people are, to be honest. Some might not acknowledge it, but it’s definitely a fact in the lives of many individuals.

People fear truth that demands a change of lifestyle. I say this because if truth was really considered to be truly freeing and beneficial, people would be much more desperate in their search for truth and understanding than most Christians are, especially regarding their faith and obedience to God. If people deeply believed there was an infinitely complex but personal and knowable God who was the ultimate source of truth, would they not seek Him earnestly and consistently? If I deeply believed that, would I not seek Him earnestly and consistently?

This is where my fear of certain truths comes in. I do believe God is complex but knowable, the ultimate source of truth and goodness. But I do not always pursue Him with fervor. Why? Because I know that if I pursue Him, truth will be relieved to me, and almost certainly I will be called to change parts of my life as a result of the new truth imparted to me. So sometimes I settle for the imperfect perception truth that I currently hold. I become unmotivated to do what we are commanded to do--to “study the Book of the Law continually,” to “meditate on it day and night so you may be sure to obey all that is written in it” (Joshua 1:8). And I choose to cling to the lie that I may be obedient and successful without developing this particular discipline. This is a lie whispered from the lips of the enemy. And so many Christians, young and old, have fallen into belief of this lie, unaware that they are lovingly clinging to their shackles and rejoicing in their ability to walk through life comfortably.

This is another fact about me: I am a person deeply passionate for my own comfort. I pursue comfort relentlessly, at times. One of my favorite things to do is pursue my comfort. I do it all the time, even subconsciously. I don’t even have to think about it. I don’t have to put any thought into sacrificing my pursuit truth and purpose, or my obedience to God, for my comfort’s sake; I do it naturally. This is one of many tragedies caused by humanity’s sinfulness.

The good news is that even when I am too weak and foolish to desire my own freedom in truth, God is still dedicated to that freedom. It is in and through Him that I, and you, are granted the strength to pursue our freedom and enter into a deeper understanding and love of God, resulting in glory, satisfaction, joy, and fullness. Isn’t that awesome?

The Hardest Thing To Lose

I believe one of the hardest things to lose is trust. It's painful when you can't feel certain in a person's motives, actions, or character, when before, you were positive you knew them. You knew you were safe in them. It's a sad reality that sometimes, people change. And it's even sadder that sometimes they were never who you thought they were.

The Struggle for Joy is a Struggle for Perspective

One of the most obvious signs of human depravity is the struggle for satisfaction and joy. Even for people who have dedicated their lives to serving and knowing God, there is still a constant battle for peace. Even when you know the promises of God, your heart is still prone to devastation, fear, sadness, worry, and disbelief. This is because the lies of Satan are being constantly and cleverly whispered to our spirits--through the media, through our own sinfulness, through broken circumstances. It's so easy to lose the battle against the enemy when you are not filling your heart and mind with the truth with equal aggression. I so often forget Satan is continually and skillfully seeking to break my spirit. I fail to realize I have to choose--again and again, day after day, moment after moment--to embrace and surrender to a heavenly perspective.

Happiness is dependent on circumstances. Joy is dependent on perspective.

I think many Christians have an incomplete understanding of joy. It's common to view joy as a sort of "happiness on steroids" type thing, but when I really think about it, I feel sure that can't be true. It can't be that simple. Christians are called to have joy in the midst of suffering, but to simply be really happy in the midst of devastating circumstances isn't biblical. We know that Christ himself felt sadness intensely, and we certainly know he suffered greatly, throughout his life (through persecution and the weight of sadness for the earth's devastation) and finally on his last days (through physical torture, relational betrayal, etc). Christ did not endure these moments happily, but he did endure them joyfully. What does that really mean?

I believe joy is the power to persevere through difficult, even devastating, circumstances by desperately clinging to a heavenly perspective on life and the things of this world. Joy is inner peace and hope based upon complete belief in the promises and goodness of God. Joy is not needing happiness to feel satisfied and purposeful in this lifetime. Joy is the heart's way of worshiping God in the midst of discomfort, uncertainty, loss, and pain. Joy is not the denial of sadness but the continual worship and glorification of God in the midst of sadness, which is inevitable on this earth.

It's tempting to see joy as a gift laid upon us without need for effort on our part. There are so many instances where I have prayed for joy, asking for God to take away a certain sadness or pain. There have been so many times when I have desired joy as a solution to the sadness. I see now that this isn't exactly what joy is. Joy is not a numbing shot or laughing gas. Joy is the belief and trust that at the end of the operation, we will one day be united with God in perfect happiness. Every sadness we may feel is temporary. In fact, everything in this life is temporary. We are called to look forward to the day we are made perfect in our union with Christ. And we can rest assured that until then, in this life on earth, there are many moments of happiness to come. Moments of sadness are opportunities to develop joy, and moments of happiness (which are also inevitable) are opportunities to rejoice and thank God with ease.

In order to live my life to its full potential, and in order to find peace in my life in the midst of trouble, I must embrace joy. And in order to embrace joy, I must cling to a heavenly perspective--a perspective which views God as sovereign, with a perfect plan for my life, and with abundant blessings to pour upon me. And I can't just do this once. I must choose this perspective every day, even, and especially, when my days seem dark.

Living a Purpose-Driven Life

There is a reason, a motivation, behind every decision in our lives, a driving force behind all the things we do.

The truth is, we are all driven by something. Sometimes it’s mysterious. Sometimes it goes unnoticed. But we would be foolish to think we could not understand what motivates our thoughts and actions, and we would be even more foolish to assume it wasn’t important.

Human beings are driven, more than anything else, by the things they desire. We are driven by our longings for love, for safety, for pleasure, security, prosperity, success, power. We are driven by the things we feel could offer us happiness. What drives us will determine our schedules, our priorities, our relationships, our opinions of ourselves and of others. We are in a constant search of satisfaction, for fullness. We want to avoid pain and find pleasure. We want, more than anything, to be happy. And this drives us.

The problem is, we aren’t sure how to make ourselves happy. Especially at this age, life is often about searching for the answers that might offer us certain happiness. We look for happiness in all kinds of things, many of them not bad. We look for happiness in popularity, dating relationships, “a good time,” academic or extracurricular success, money and materials, and dozens of other things. We each enjoy different things, and we find happiness differently from person to person. What is similar between us, though, is the search. We are all looking for something to satisfy us. That’s not wrong.

But sometimes I wonder if it’s working. With my best attempts and purest intentions, the things I find happiness in always seem to fail me. Relationships fall apart. Money doesn’t last. Security falls in the face of fear and trials. Sadness and pain creep in, and I feel lost. The things I hold most dear let me down. And I wonder if there’s something more.

We are driven by our desire for happiness. We want life to be worthwhile. According to John Piper, this motivation is not something to be criticized. No Christian would disagree that God’s intentions for His people are that of glory and peace. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” The Lord desires us to be happy just as much as we ourselves long for happiness. God will never discourage a believer from seeking true happiness.

And here is the problem in our search. Often, our way of seeking happiness will not lead to the correct destination. The Lord takes no pleasure in watching His children stumble around in the darkness, trying to fill themselves with fleeting temporary pleasures. God does not desire His children settle for the pleasures of this earth. True, perfect satisfaction is possible. But in order to find it, we must be willing to take on a new perspective.

In 1941, C.S. Lewis spoke these words in a sermon:

“If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion... is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

Seeking true happiness is a noble, even righteous, journey. But the journey will be in vain if a person searches for such happiness outside of Christ. We were created with a purpose--yes, to serve God, but even before that--to love and enjoy God. You cannot please God or serve God without loving Him, and you are missing the point of life if you are not enjoying Him. When asked what your purpose on this earth is, you might be tempted to answer that your purpose is to lead people to Christ or to live a life serving God. Please do not hear me calling this worthless tasks, but also, please do not be deceived into thinking this is your ultimate purpose. Your purpose is to find perfect, glorious, life-sustaining joy and satisfaction in God through a relationship with Him.

Sometimes it seems as if the dominant question lurking within our souls in the question of whether or not we were created with a divine purpose. However, the question should not be whether or not we were designed with a purpose. The question should be, and is, whether or not we see the benefit in laying down our own agendas to serve that purpose and to find a happiness far deeper than we ever knew was possible. Seeking the pleasures of earth and believing it will make you truly happy is like collecting pennies from a fountain when you have millions to collect at the bank.

Life is painful. It is not easy, and it is not always comfortable. Sometimes life is tragic, and life is always broken. But, despite these things, true happiness is real, available, and worth pursuing.