Paper WallsSample

Free to See

Prayer: Heavenly Father, the cost of my excuses is too high. Will you shine a light into the dark corners of my excuses so I can be free to follow Jesus?

Reading

We’re pretty good at catching other people lying. But we’re not so good at spotting the lies we tell ourselves. If you’re reading this and thinking, I don’t lie to myself, you probably just did! We don’t even call the lies we tell ourselves lies. We call them something else. We dignify our lies and call them… reasons.

We say, “I was late because of traffic.” But in truth, we were late because we slept too long and then piddled on Twitter. But we’ll stick with traffic. Traffic was a bear!

We have reasons for why we blew up and lost our tempers, blew the diet, blew off the relationship.

We view our reasons as obstacles that make things impossible, as brick walls, when they’re just paper.

Here's the problem: You can only live behind a single excuse, or wall, for so long before it impacts every area of your life… including your ability to follow Jesus.

As you look at Jesus through the Gospels, you see him constantly leading people out of darkness into the light. Light can be scary. Threatening. Humiliating. But light can also be liberating. Ask anyone in Alcoholics Anonymous!

Lies, especially the whoppers you tell yourself, leave you in the dark. But the truth sets you free. Jesus said,

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

Jesus wants to light up the dark places and lead us through our paper walls. He invites us not to simply believe in him but to follow him so he can take us somewhere.

Later in the same conversation, Jesus said,

“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31–32)

Why do we push back from truth? From freedom? Jesus’s audience responded by making excuses.

They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” (John 8:33)

Jesus’s listeners from 2,000 years ago couldn’t see that they weren’t free. But they were ruled by a Roman governor. Before that, they were ruled by the Seleucids, Persians, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Egyptians. It’s easy to criticize them, but we’re the same way. When someone implies we’re slaves to our excuses, we make more excuses. We think, Not me.

Jesus challenged that.

“Very truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” (John 8:34)

Do you ever do what you ought not to do? And then regret it? We ask ourselves, What made me do that? or What in the world was I thinking? We’ve deceived ourselves into thinking we’re freer than we are because we’re hiding behind excuses.

Jesus said,

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36)

You’ll be free to name an excuse for what it is. Free to acknowledge your fear and insecurity. Free to push through paper walls. Free to move forward to the life God has called you to live.

Following Jesus makes your life better and makes you better at life. He’s the light of the world. He’s come to light up all our darkness. He makes us free to see what we can’t see. Free to engage.

Our excuses excuse us from engaging with others. They excuse us from loving others. Isn’t it true that the people who’ve hurt us the most excused their behavior? They could not—or would not—see their behavior for what it was. Rather than apologizing, they made excuses. Their paper walls enslaved them to their self-centered ways. At times, we may be like that too. We may unintentionally hurt people because of our paper walls. Excuses enslave us to our self-centeredness.

If you let him, Jesus will show you the truth, and it will set you free.

In tomorrow’s reading, we’ll explore five steps to punching through your paper walls.

Reflection

Have you ever caught yourself lying to yourself? What enabled or forced you to see the lie for what it was?