Saturday 3 September 2011

Truth

Had an epiphany this morning.  This one's been a long time coming.  It's about lies and its opposite, truth.  I've told many lies in my past and have been told lies to by many people.  What is the nature of a lie?  What is the nature of truth?  These are questions I've been seriously pondering since I was a teen.  Now I think I've finally started to find some clarity with this issue.  I think it is to do with the human condition.  We all tell lies and we all are truthful to one degree or another.  This is where the definition of a lie and of (a) truth really begs the question.  For example, not being open about a subject in your life is a way of concealing the truth, a form of dishonesty, no?  Believing in superstition and fantasy is a way of deceiving yourself and acting on it can hurt yourself and others.  Why do humans need to be dishonest?  I think it is because of the human condition ~ we are here, we are aware and none of us know for certain wtf is going on.  We're all relatively insane.  We tell lies as form of coping with this conundrum.  One thing I do know for sure though.  Truth does set one free, and one can never grasp the whole truth.  One must seek it from a humble perspective, hearing all sides of the stories to even get a foothold in the door of truth, and freedom.

4 comments:

  1. From 'J' ~

    The truth is what it is, and it doesn't change. Our knowledge of the truth is relative to however many bits and pieces of the facts or circumstances we have been made aware of or tried to seek out. There are many facets of the whole truth that we as humans will never be able to acquire because we are not all-knowing, and that is why only God can be the judge. It is human to try to put our knowledge and understanding on His throne and try to be a fair judge of what we believe to be the complete truth, and as we start to approach our circumstances with humility we can accept that our finite minds cannot fully comprehend the whole truth about anything. And thus we live our lives trusting that God, who has complete wisdom and knowledge of the whole truth will make all things work for our good. It takes courage, faithfulness and sacrifice of self to live in a way that is most honoring to God.

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  2. J said some more! ~

    Here's a thought for you, T: We cannot change the reality of where we came from, what family we were brought up in, what things were done to us, what things we did to others and the person we've become because of the experiences of our past. If we try to deny the realities of our past, we're only deceiving ourselves. It takes courage to face the truth of our past rather than deny any part of it, and to see ourselves as we truly are rather than deceive ourselves by seeing only the parts of ourselves that we're comfortable with...the parts that we think would be acceptable to those around us. And we deceive others by showing them only the parts of ourselves that we think they might accept and find worthy of their love.

    It is heartening to know that we are not defined by our past experiences, our own estimation of ourselves or anyone else's opinion of who we are. The very essence of who we are does not remain static, we are always in a process of transformation; so we can truly say that we are not the same person we were 10, 15, or 20 years ago. And if we make the choice to learn and grow from our experiences, we will be a different person in the future than who we are now.

    Freedom comes from accepting what we know about ourselves, making the effort to improve on the things we don't like about ourselves, being transparent about it with others and trusting that they will still accept and love us--warts and all.

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  3. Brilliant, heartfelt and true J!!!

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