A Little Truth Telling, anyone?

Ok, can I first just say...how weird is it to review your own book? :)

Actually, you may be glad to know that it is not what I am going to do, on this Tuesday or any Tuesday for the next 10 weeks of Lelia’s online Bible Study of Behind Those Eyes. To be completely honest, it’s hard to be objective when you know the hours you stayed up guzzling coffee to string a sentence together and birth a writing project such as this. Obviously, it’s a passion of mine and something I am deeply attached to or I wouldn't have written it. It's also something I firmly believe God placed on my heart that He wanted me to share with women -- in fact, with you.

But to say that I am excited about joining you for this study is an understatement. I am so honored and humbled that women from all over the country and even, abroad (!), would be so eager to read this book and share what it meant to you. I gave it to God when I wrote it, and I give it to Him, again, and whatever comes out of it that touches your heart.

Having said that, I want to start out today’s post by saying that if there was one thing I would want you to take away from reading chapter one of Behind Those Eyes, (The Truth Hurts) it would be for you to realize just how important truth is to your life.

We say it…we know it…but do we live it?

Sometimes. When it feels good or gets us what we need or think we want.

When faced with moments like the one I experienced in the hair salon I write about in chapter one (which was the catalyst for this book, by the way), we make a choice. We decide to be real or seem perfect. We determine to let down or act completely confident. We give ourselves permission to be sad or pretend to be gloriously happy. Or best of all, we hide our true feelings and instead, appear super spiritual. Which is where the characters we will meet over the next 4 weeks come in.

At the point at which we choose pretense over authenticity, we make a decision to walk away from truth instead of walking in it. It’s where I believe many of us currently reside.

David in the Bible was certainly someone who could identify with walking away from truth instead of walking in it. After all, when you scope someone out you want to sleep with, commit the act, get her pregnant and arrange to have her husband killed so you can cover up for it, you could easily consider your self having walked away from the truth.

But fortunately for David, that was not the end of his story. Because the man who grew from a shepherd boy to the ruler of the nation of Israel…the same one who famously killed the giant Goliath with a rigged up weapon and saved his people from the mean and nasty Philistines remembered what life was life when he once lived in truth. Before the days he walked away from it. And I believe he knew the difference and probably longed for his old way of life. B.T.L.-- Before The Lies.

Like every chapter that follows it, chapter one of Behind Those Eyes has a verse attached to it. If you read the chapter you likely already know what Psalm 51:6 in the Message translation says… “What you’re looking for is truth from the inside out.” The interesting thing to note about that verse is that when it was written was right after the time David was confronted by the prophet Nathan over his sin with Bathsheba. So I suspect that at that point, telling the truth was on the forefront of David’s mind.

But there is another interesting thing to notice about this whole message of truth as it applies to David. Just 4 verses later, in the same chapter in Psalm, David wrote one of the most famous verses in all of the Bible, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in me.” It’s as if in verse 6 he tells us what we want and in verse 10 he tells us how to go about getting it! In order to live and walk in truth we have to first clean out the corners of our heart and be of right spirit with God. It simply won’t work any other way.

Though we may wish for them, there are really no shortcuts to living and walking in truth. It is a daily, hourly, and...if you’re like me...minute by minute process of purposeful commitment to being real and honest about who I am…who He is…and yes, even where I’ve been to bring me to this point in my life.

So as you do the Bible study questions in the back of the book and as you face the challenge question head on and do your “getting real” call to action, please remember that this study will not have the same meaning for you if you try to do it before you ask God to do some good heart cleaning. You can’t be like the one who plays softball and waits to receive the ball but stands there without their glove on. Otherwise, you will be ill equipped to receive the nuggets of truth in your own life God wants to present to you through the chapters.

I have learned a lot since writing Behind Those Eyes, nearly 2 years ago. I have seen God change my own heart about the level at which my life is committed to being real and genuine. And yes, I have also had times I wanted to revert back to my old ways of walking away from truth or cleaning out only parts of my heart, but leaving the really deep and painful things in there.

But the one thing that hasn’t changed since I started this journey to be real is the fact that sometimes the truth just plain hurts. Sometimes it is inconvenient. Sometimes it pushes me to do some open heart surgery and face what’s inside that is not healthy. Sometimes it is ugly and sometimes it makes me uncomfortable. But it has always, always been (and I suspect always will be) the determining factor in what I do for God.

He is truth, and His truth alone is what sets us free. And if you’ve looked in the back of the book, you know that’s where we are eventually headed.

May God convince you today that telling the TRUTH is worth the risk of giving up the act.

See you and Ms. Perfection next Tuesday!