Come On, Who'ya Trying to Fool?

Ps 51:6

6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward being;therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. RSV

My dear wife has an annoying habit of asking me “What are you thinking?” Often I lie. I say, “Nothing.” Now that is such an obvious deception that I might as well had said, “It’s none of your business what I am thinking.” Wouldn’t it be interesting to have a button that would, when pushed, cause anyone to truthfully report, accurately and unedited, the past ten minutes of their “inner dialogue.”

My mother and I once visited her mother’s brother. He was in his late 80’s, lived alone and I wanted to interview him for genealogical purposes. He was not at all responsive to my questions about our family. It soon became clear that he really didn’t want to talk with us. During one of the many periods of silence, without the slightest expression of any emotion, he said “I wish they would leave.” I don’t think he ever became aware that he had spoken part of his inner dialogue.

Are there lies in our “thought world”? I would imagine that we are more likely to be truthful to ourselves than to others, so fewer deceptions will happen in our secret spaces. The lies we tell ourselves are more formative, that is, they have a greater impact, than the lies we tell others.

Techniques like keep a journal of your “private thoughts” (or inner dialogue) is useful to check the accuracy of those perceptions. It is dangerous to assume that anything in my head must be the truth. A necessary spiritual exercise is to purge your heart from as many untruths as possible.

Ps 51:6

6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward being;

therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.

RSV

And silence, like a poultice, comes To heal the blows of sound. Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894)

 

Acceptance of one’s intrinsic worth is the core of the personality. When it collapses, everything else begins to quiver. James C. Dobson (1936– )

 

He who respects himself is safe from others; he wears a coat of mail that none can pierce. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)

 

Our acceptance before God is complete and secure even when we are disappointed in ourselves. Erwin W. Lutzer (1941– )