Truth, Authenticity, & The World of Lies

There's a quote that goes, "if it rains in the world, it drips in the church." True or not true?

We live in a culture of lies. Culture is our beliefs, attitudes, and customs towards things. There are lots of things in our culture that impact our lives; things we use everyday, things that affect us in little ways. Things like lying on the resume (because what's so wrong with embellishing yourself just a liiittle bit), telling white lies to your parents when you come home in the evening, and faking reactions to people's stories when you either secretly hate it, or just haven't been listening in general. Little lies like these infiltrate our lives all the time. Consistently. If we really stop to evaluate our lives we'd be shocked to discover how much we actually lie or intentionally deceive others.

Social media is the prime example of lies. We've all experienced the email scams (hey look, you've magically inherited a billion dollars) and the heart-wrenching sad stories (if you would just forward this, you could save a life), but those are different because those lies and those scams don't necessarily come from us (unless we forward them). What comes from us is how we portray ourselves on social media. How do you, in a sense, market yourself?

25% of young people say that their online life is not representative of their reality. What they post has been altered, adjusted, edited, and even faked, to make their lives seem more dramatic, more fun, more worth envying than the next person. But if we don't tell the whole truth, is it really a lie? Is it really so bad to embellish our social media accounts a little?

Studies have shown that some people's recollections of their past events have been distorted by their own lies - their own fabrications. They've told this lie so often they've started to believe it themselves. It's become their new reality. And this is so, so dangerous. "When we deeply lose what authentically and compassionately feels to be 'us'; to the degree that we no longer recognize the experience, our voice, the memory or even the view of ourselves...feelings of guilt and distaste towards ourselves can create a cognitive trap of alienation and even a sense of disconnection and paranoia." Basically, if we lie about who we are,and what our life is actually like, we start to feel disconnected from ourselves, and the people around us.

Remember the story of Jenelle Potter, the woman who was so caught up in her lies and make-believe world online that she convinced her father to kill two of her friends. The reality that we create for others can seriously impact us in negative ways we can't always foresee.

But lying is so natural. We've come desensitized to it. Advertising lies (remember the stories of Apple, Coca-Cola, Aquafina), Medicine lies (Bio-energy healing, ear candling, fire-breathing therapy) , Politicians lie (put name of any politician here). We're so used to being surrounded by lies. "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes," said Mark Twain. True years and years ago, and true now.

What we see now in the world is less of people back peddling when caught in a lie, and more of denying that it's wrong, more digging in of the heels. This is what they call the Backfire Effect. People double down on their beliefs when presented with facts that contradict them. Because anything is better than admitting that you were wrong, that you lied, or that you fell for the lie of others. Something we've all done at one point or another in our lives.

So what's the answer? How do we live in a world so permeated with lies? Thankfully, we do have the ultimate source of truth. God is a God of truth, of purity. He tells us constantly in the Bible to speak the truth in love (270 times actually). Most of us often don't want to hear that though. We'd rather hear a reassuring lie than an inconvenient truth. But we are called to speak the truth in love to one another, for we are all members of one another. (Ephesians 4:25)

There are three key ways we can stand up and make a difference for truth: Verify, Dignify, Justify.

VERIFY - all stories and 'please share this' forwards that cross your path. Use Snopes.com. Make sure it's the truth before you pass it on and, perhaps unknowingly, deceive someone else.

DIGNIFY -your life by living it authentically online and off. Don't do things just so you can post it. Don't post things that intentionally deceive others. Don't do things for the likes, the comments, the online approval. Live your life truthfully on your Instagram account, and in reality.

JUSTIFY -the trust others put in you. If you say you'll keep their secret, keep it. If you say you'll do something for them, do it. If you promise them something, follow through. Be someone they can trust, be someone they can count on to be honest in love.

Verify, Dignify, Justify. Live your life as a life of truth and honesty.

Because when it rains in the world, it rains in the church too.