Dancing with tall tales & white lies

So there's a few things that I have been thinking about lately....the first being truth. This week at church, Greg spoke about Honesty, well more about truth. I'll give a quick paraphrase.

If our focus is honesty then we are kinda missing the point, b/c its about having the living truth live in you. And when Jesus, the truth lives in you, then really honesty isn't so much the issue. Our focus shouldn't be pinpointed on honesty, but on having the truth live in us."

I guess I am really struggling with this a bit. We live in a world of deception, and so we as Christ followers are called live the truth, or allow the truth to live in us. And if Jesus is the truth, then the truth is a living thing, it's not a stagnant thing. We treat truth as if its a choice, a black & white, archaic thing. I often think we percieve truth as this ancient old thing that we learn and pass on to each other. Jesus was the truth, he lived back in the day, and we treat truth like a history lesson sometimes. Like how our parents teach us that it's wrong to lie or steal. Those things were probubly taught to them by their parents, whoe learned if from their parents generation. And for example, how my grandparents believed it was wrong to play cards on sunday. That was a truth for them, and so they passed it on. To them it was black & white.

I feel sometimes that we are Christians treat truth like a sunday school lesson, and we pass on these "truths" to each other. But at times, we have missed the boat completely. I think truth is not entirely something you pass on, and its not necessarily a choice that you have to make sometimes, its more a way of life, a way that you live. Are you living the truth if you are honest about somethings, a not about others? I think that sometimes we think that this is ok, to be honest sometimes, and not others. I think that truth is not always black & white as some people perceive. AIt is definately not ancient, or before our time, and it is not a religious thing we have to stuff down people's throats...in fact, truth needs no convincing. It is here and now and it is living. It is in the now, Jesus is in the present, and here is truth.

I am thinking a lot about what it means to have truth actually live in me, and abide in me. The task seems daunting in some ways, like how do I combat deception, and not allow it to abide in me. How do I show the light of truth to others, when I am struggling with truth myself. It's hard to be honest, it's hard to combat all of these lies we come up against every single day. It's hard to know what is true sometimes, especially in the world we live in, which is built upon dishonesty & deception. All I ever here are lies, when I watch tv, listen to music, go for a walk, it seems everything I do, I am bombarded with ideas of what the world sees as truth.

How do I as a Christian, truly and sincerely live out a life of truth in a world of lies & deception? How do I become a more honest person? How do I avoid the urge to twist truth? It hurts to be honest, and sometimes it totally sucks. It's hard, it makes you think, really think about whether you should tell the truth and risk getting hurt or hurting someone, or lying and things being a little easier. Cause lets face a lot of the time, lying is the easy way out. Being dishonest is something that no one has to know about. We can hide it within our selves. Although I think the truth eventually catches up with you in some shape or form, in the moment its easy to lie. So how do I combat this? How do I take the road perhaps less travelled, the more difficult & painful and more honest way? It's not as easy as don't lie. Or maybe it is just that simple...