Tell The Truth - Or, At Least Don't Lie - Part 2

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally some form of artistic mark to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Peterson, Jordan B. 12 Rules for Life: an antidote to chaos. Great Britain: Penguin Random House, 2018. Rule 8: Tell the Truth – Or, At Least, Don’t Lie, pp. 209- 211

Opening Thought: Often when we talk about lying, we simply mean making a false claim which is untrue, as one might if they were lying in court, or how teenagers tend to lie about the reasons they are late for their curfews. We all tend to feel, from time to time, that spinning a web is easier than telling the truth, but it is hardly every case, if ever. The interesting thing about Peterson's chapter about telling the truth is that Peterson dives into the spectrum of what lying entails. It is more complex than one may think. For this week’s post, I will be focusing on two points Peterson raises. If you want all of them, you’ll have to grab the book for yourself.

The first category of lie is what Austrian psychologist Adler called a “Life-Lies”[1] A life lie seems to function as a preservation tactic for those who are or feel unqualified for circumstances presented to them in life. Life lies spin truth into habitual manipulation to satiate the unwillingness to face our vulnerability or weaknesses. Peterson summaries it as follows:

To conduct life like this is to be possessed by some ill-formed desire, and then to craft speech and action in a manner that appears likely, rationally, to bring about that end. Typically calculated ends might include “to impose my ideological beliefs,” “to prove that I am (or was) right,” “to appear competent,” “to ratchet myself up the dominance hierarchy,” “to avoid responsibility” (or its twin, “to garner the benefits of martyrdom,” “to justify my cynicism,” “to rationalize my naivete” “to capitalize on my vulnerability,” “to always appear as the sainted one,” or (this one is particularly evil) “to ensure that it is always my unloved child’s fault.” [2]    

I am pleased that Peterson took the time to think of so many examples, because it pulls the reader away from the false idea that lies are just white lies, or grand scale lies like we see in politics or court cases. People decided in life they want a particular outcome, and they use manipulation tactics to ensure the social outcome reflects their desires. And since people’s motivations vary as much as people do, there can be an infinite situation where people use these slights of hand and voice to rob from truth.

When I was in high school, I had one of these “life-lies” I often told. Prior to my later years in high school where I found my stride in academia, I struggled to get good grades. I would study hard and do my best going into the test, but I would often get barely passing grades. When my peers saw the poor grades, I began to mimic what I heard from other students who got poor grades. “Nah, it’s not like I studied anything. School is a waste of time”. For a long time, I still studied and struggled but outwardly I spoke as if I has no aspirations for school to shield from my peers the disappointment I felt inside. After a few years of this, I became a bare minimum student. I spoke the lies so much I began to believe them on the surface; I stopped studying or trying in class. Though, deep inside I still knew it was a lie. It wasn’t until first-semester grade 11, a stern but wise teacher told me to “knock it off,” tossed my essay back at me, and said, “I dare you to better than this.” I realized, he could see through the outer shell I was using to shield myself, and luckily for me, he was there to call out my life-lie.

The second category of lie that is touched on is the Axiom-Lie (“axiom-lie” is not used as a formal title, I’m adding this for simplification.) Now axioms are statements or propositions which are regarded as being established, accepted, or self-evidently true. Many axioms are for the most part benign, like the axiom, “sports build character”. Though not every person enjoys sports, nor does everyone have a positive character built into them from the sports experience. So, in the predominate situation an axiom can be true, but maybe not always. The axiom shifts to an axiom lie when the person moves the axiom into a position of gospel truth. If a coach of a football team assumes every hardship in sports will build positive character and demands that assumption to be true, he is likely going to become an emotionally abusive coach. Axioms and axiom-lies derive from people clinging to oversimplified ideologies. As Peterson notes,

“[People can] adopt a single axion: government is bad, immigration is bad, capitalism is bad, patriarchy is bad. Then they filter and screen their experiences and insist ever more narrowly that everything can be explained by that axiom. They believe, narcissistically, underneath all that bad theory, that the world could be put right, if only they held control.”[3]

Our hypothetical coach in his narcissism and desperation for his axiom to be true chastises those players he does not see positive growth in character and praises those who see to grow naturally, attributing their success to his work and his philosophy. The politician, the professor, or the judge can do the same thing, but their influence can be on a much grander scale. Same sin but the ripple effects can be devastating.

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, help us to hold ourselves to truth, in all things, in all ways, now and forever, Amen.  

Scripture: Titus 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began

Reflection: “God, who never lies” is a weird wording to me. I don’t know if God could “lie”. God’s nature is Truth, meaning He Is – so anything that “is not” is not of God. So how could God lie? Thus, it is true that God is one who never lies, but nor could he. There are some capacities that only broken creatures can commit, just as Christ cannot sin, because his nature is the same as the eternal God; pure, holy, and good.

Human nature, in its broken form, learns to lie, as a way of filling the cracks in our brokenness. But deceitfulness, falseness, and willful ignorance just erode the cracks. It is oddly enough, not until we accept our broken natures, that we begin to welcome our creator to come and fix the damage done. We must be honest to allow the source of truth to make us whole.

Lying is not just a pesky inconvenience, it is antithetical to God, and your restored nature. As Peterson reviews the dangers of lying, he truly is doing a service to humanity, because lying is the neck of the great sin of pride. Lying builds barriers between the prideful soul and the outside world, until the prideful soul is so barricaded that they suffocate themselves. In that way, it is their primary shield and noose.

More and moreover the years I have come to appreciate the practice of “confession”. As a protestant, I have no formal sacrament of confession which runs through a priest, but I often wonder whether or not we should formulate a more socially acceptable practice within the church to practice confession, around a liturgy that speaks to both reconciliation, but also to this challenge of deceitfulness and falseness being antithetical to God.  

Challenge for the Week: (Keeping the Same one from last time) If you told a lie this month, own up to it. Go confess to the person or people that you lied to, that you spoke falsely. Face the music, grow up, and act stop lying. This challenge is not just for this month, from this point on commit yourself to telling the truth. If you trip up and lie instinctively (which can happen), admit to it right away. Lying is a sign of weakness, truthfulness is the ideal behind strength and courage.

Prayer for your week: God – You are. We are trying to be. Help us to stop trying. Help us to rest in Your Truth, and we will Be, reborn in You. Amen.  

Artistic Close: In the last decade the phrase “fake news” has become vernacular. Some people use these words authentically, while others use them sarcastically. Either way, there is a feeling of mistrust in the air. Which, in some ways is good and in others bad. We need to be skeptical about everything we watch, hear or read, no matter the topic. However, we must not become cynical toward our brothers and sisters. Because otherwise, we begin to build axiom-lies which will say that anyone who believes the news, or on the flip side, anyone who mistrusts the news is a moron. To be seekers of truth, and good Christians, we must do the work of navigating the larger conversations, listening to all sides of the argument, and then doing our best to serve God’s truth to the very end.     

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[1] Adler, A. (1973). “Life-lie and responsibility in neurosis and psychosis: a contribution to melancholia.” In P. Radin (Trans.) The practice and theory of Individual Psychology. Totawa, N.J.: Littlefield, Adams & Company – as cited by J.P.Peterson in 12 Rules for Life.

[2] Peterson J.P., 12 Rules for Life. Pp 209.

[3] Ibid., 211