truth is a terrible thing to waste

There are not too many black-or-white's in the real world. Mostly just varying shades of grey. Sometimes this is to my great relief; I kind of like that things are more complex than a lifetime of simple answers. That would just be boring. There are times, however, when it is much more to my chagrin than to my relief. When decisions are going to affect my relationship with either God or others, I sure wish I could just figure out what to do.

Those are the days when I wish that I could have the little guys show up on my shoulder: one would be handsome, but have "LIE" clearly written across his black t-shirt. He would be handsome, of course, because the lie almost always has a way of looking more appealing than the truth. On the other shoulder would stand a fellow with a kind face, "TRUTH" printed across his t-shirt (this time white, of course). But this has never happened to me, and if it did, I would probably be less relieved and more concerned that I was developing some sort of mental condition. But I digress...

Anyway, lately I have been asking God (ok, sometimes begging him) to help me tell the truth from the lie. I was reading Hebrews a few days ago, and found yet again that God really does want to answer us when we ask him to help us be disciples. In chapter 5, the author is writing about those who are spiritually mature and those who are not (he is accusing his audience of falling in the latter category). He speaks of those who can only handle spritual milk, who are not ready for the solid food of deeper truth. Then he says something simple, yet so profound about those who are mature; he tells us that "by constant use, they have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil." Seeing truth from lie, developing the ability to find the white side of that shade of grey, comes when truth is in constant use in our lives. That means read it, live it , breathe it, proclaim it, walk in it. Soak it in until that handsome fellow called lie just pales in comparison to the kind face of truth and goodness.

Truth, it turns out, is like so many things in life. You either use it, or you lose it. And truth really is a terrible thing to waste.