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HEALING EMOTIONAL WOUNDS
Let’s turn now from the ideology that plays in the culture wars to the lies we believe about ourselves. Most of the lies we face don’t make news headlines or end up in Twitter debates.
It’s the grown man who was berated by his father and comes to believe I am only as good as I am successful at work.
It’s the teenage girl who, comparing herself to the mirage of Instagram, comes to believe I am ugly and unworthy of love.
It’s the pastor who was a high-energy child, regularly scolded by her parents, who now believes I’m a bad person.
It’s the entrepreneur whose prior business failed after the betrayal of his partner, and who now believes everything I do will fail.
It’s the middle-aged woman who was raised by an angry perfectionist mother and decades later still believes I have to be perfect to have peace.
I’ve changed details for anonymity, but these aren’t hypothetical examples. They are a small sampling of thousands of stories people have trusted me with as their pastor.
There is not a soul I know who is not living in, at some level, bondage to lies.
Facing the lies we have come to believe can be terrifying. As T.S. Elliot put it, "Humankind cannot bear very much reality." The illusions we cling to become part of our identity and, with it, our security. They make us feel safe even as they imprison us in fear. Ripping them out of the humus of our soul can be excruciating.
When Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32), he was simultaneously saying that we’re enslaved by lies. We’re in bondage to the tyranny of false ideas about reality that hold our souls and our society in captivity to suffering and pain. As Paul later said, the devil has “taken [us] captive to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:26).
Jesus has come to liberate us with the weapon of truth. It’s only in coming face to face with reality as it actually is before God that we find peace.
What are five things you believe about yourself? When did you first start believing them? Why do you think they are true?
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About this Plan
Do you find yourself exhausted looking through your newsfeed lately because you feel torn between the ideologies of our time? John Mark Comer encourages us to follow Jesus in an age of increasingly hostile secularism while keeping our hearts tender and open. Finding spiritual renewal in our day starts with recognizing the inner conflict between the lies we live and the truth that brings the peace we long for.
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