2017 - Page 2 of 4 - davidherin.org

LIE: To avoid rejection I must pretend or perform an admired role

Lie: To avoid rejection I must pretend or perform an admired role.
Truth: To avoid worrying about rejection, I must enter the ‘secret place.’

We’ve all felt it. I’m talking about that anxious feeling we get at a social event, when we can’t find one familiar face. Some panic, others wade into the crowd with relish. But for both, often the solution is to put on a smile and fake it. That is, we pretend, we put on a role, a persona, perhaps the best version of ourselves or, for some, we assume a completely different personality; others are less subtle – they clam up or hide or avoid the conflict altogether.
The question is ‘why?’ Why do we do this? Why can’t we simply without pretense or bother, strike up conversations with a simple sincerity, taking a genuine interest in the life and well being of those we meet? Why is that so hard? The answer is obvious: . . .

LIE: I should not judge

Lie: I should not judge.
Truth: We should judge rightly.

To judge or not to judge, that is the question. This is such a basic and important dilemma that it requires a careful answer. The word judge has a rich and varied meaning that we must parse carefully and discern its use in context. The most common Greek word translated to judge in the New Testament is krino, which means . . .

LIE: I can’t forgive

Lie: I can’t forgive.
Truth: You must forgive and therefore you can forgive.
. . . Forbearance is the first line of defense against offences. If we’re sufficiently forbearant, we may never need to forgive at all. But it’s usually the little irritations: the snubs, the slurs, the disappointments that build up over time that get to us. Most of us are tolerant enough to forbear the small things, at least for a while, but sometimes they accumulate enough that we need to forgive.
One reason we allow the slights to build up is a general unawareness . . .

LIE: I can live the Christian life on my own

Lie: I can live the Christian life on my own.
Truth: We can live the Christian life only in concert with other believers in Christ.

Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s little book on community, is a beautiful portrait of the communal life of an ‘underground’ seminary in 1930s Finkenwalde, Poland, where students shared their lives in Christian simplicity. We love these idyllic glimpses, and think wistfully of them as quaint, but outdated and impractical. The reality is, most often, we simply live Life Alone.
More accurately though, we tolerate a love-hate relationship with the alone-together dilemma . . .

LIE: Appearing to care and caring are the same thing

Lie: Appearing to care and caring are the same thing.
Truth: Appearing to care is vanity – we must actually care.

. . . Self-forgetfulness, the ability to be unaware of ourselves, is the true attitude of our ‘alms’. Jesus said it: “But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. That your charitable deed may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.” Matthew 6:3–4
Giving alms in secret is loving in such a way that we are hardly aware of the performance of it ourselves; we simply do it, so focused on the person in need, that we fade into the background in our own minds.
How do we achieve this self-forgetfulness? It can only be gained . . .

LIE: People with same-sex attractions are rebellious, are mistakes and are rejected by God

Lie: People with same-sex attractions are rebellious, are mistakes and are rejected by God.
Truth: People with same-sex attractions are not rejected by God and may be modern-day eunuchs.

God made every human being on earth as a unique masterpiece – no two of us are alike. We differ in so many ways: in our outward appearance, our personality, our likes and dislikes, our health conditions and more. That said, most of us still have two eyes, a nose and a mouth – though a few of us do not. . . . And most of us are clearly born as a boy or a girl, yet (surprise!) some of us are not. We call these babies hermaphrodites or now, ‘intersex’ (those who have characteristics of both male and female organs, genitalia or chromosomes).
These exceptions are a reality in our world; no one would dispute this. But let me go one step farther: most of us grow up with an opposite-sex attraction, but (again, surprise!) some of us do not.

LIE: The meaning of life is an unfathomable mystery

Lie: The meaning of life is an unfathomable mystery.
Truth: The core of life’s meaning is clear: to adore and glorify God.
No doubt about it, life is mysterious. Science, or rather Scientism, has worked overtime to extract all mystery out of it and reduce life to organic compounds, processing and electro-chemical signaling. Yet the average person simply doesn’t believe it – it’s quite unbelievable as a ‘faith.’ What we’re left with is a confusing emptiness, a mystery of a mystery. But God never intended it to be so.

LIE: I can become a god, part 2

The technological revolution, in all its dimensions – media, transportation, agriculture, communications, finance, health, you name it – has transformed our landscape and extended man’s reach and power beyond anything that could have been conceived. Our combined humanity and the different kinds of groups of humanity – nations, corporations, military branches, federal and state agencies, universities and schools – can now exert power and control over practically all forms of human activity, be it weather, food production, healthcare or communications. Man has created systems of control, systems of systems, that are unprecedented in history. . . .
We know this, but so what?
The problem is that humans claim this as an advancement, the elevation of what it means to be natively human (that’s the point – no other kind of human exists). We have become greater, more powerful, more capable. This is now who we are. Man has made man greater, without God.

LIE: I can become a god, part 1

Lie: I can become a god.
Truth: I can become a king under God.

This is the oldest lie, the original lie and therefore the most fundamental, most integrative and silently influential of all deceptions. What may sound ludicrous and therefore harmless – who in their right mind would think they can become a god?! – turns out to be the most insidious because it flies so far under the radar. In order to see just how dangerous this lie is, we must start at the beginning . . .

LIE: No matter what I do, nothing changes

Lie: No matter what I do, nothing changes.
Truth: Actions (and in-actions) have consequences, but eventually everything changes.

In one sense of course, Solomon was right — there is nothing new under the sun. The generations, the cycles of the sun, the winds, the waters, they all continue their cyclical courses; but in another sense, everything is constantly being renewed. Yes, each generation has its births and deaths, its marriages and children, its coming and going. Yet each generation, each person is uniquely and constantly changing – one of life’s most perplexing ironies. But we feel Solomon’s weariness . . .