Sometimes the truth is hard to hear. Sometimes, we shut it out because it provides detail that makes us uncomfortable and we do not like feeling of vulnerability truth can bring. Sometimes, we shut it out because we just don't have time or give energy to fully grasp the truth, or sometimes we just want to not hear anything and be left alone.
In a day and age that we are inundated and overstimulated, how can we really know what is true and what is not? I admit I am the worst at wanting to face reality when I am tired so I drift off to La La Land (aka social media) thinking I can find positivity and peace. When in all actuality, all this is doing is pulling me away from reality, and I know it! Back off Wormwood (for those that know C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters). However, I still continue to go there. Why? Why do we rely on our devices, news outlets, social media, etc for our truths? Because it is convenient? Because we can hide behind a filter? We can show what we want, we can read what we want, we can respond how we want to, we are acknowledged with Likes and votes, we can win, all to make ourselves feel better? Look! Look, at how it is all designed, self first- not others. All of it! Designed to make us fight, hate, argue (not debate), hurt, and not listen.
However, we all share this truth; that we cannot do it alone and we should all strive to live out truth, the one we all know- love, agapē, sacrificial love, the love of mankind.
What will we do when the red bubbles do not pop up, the thumbs ups go away, when we have no filters, when we can't google something and instantly get a million "truths"- what will happen to ourselves?
There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. ~C.S. Lewis - The Four Loves
Will we be able to recognize the truth? Will we allow ourselves to be vulnerable? Will we put the love of others first in our lives, debates, interactions? Let us work to release ourselves and present the truth. Let us live our lives (physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and digitally) with agapē, the highest form of love.
Let us continue to elevate truth, and not allow it to be suppressed.
Monkey, Monster, and Mayhem on the dock of heaven on earth.
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you stand firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear omen to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God.
â€â€Philippians‬ â€1:27-28‬ â€RSV‬‬