March 29, 2012

The last chapter in the Good and Beautiful Life talked about lying. How we all lie constantly on a daily basis, hardly even registering that we have done it. I think I fall into this trap quite often. Saying something to get out of a situation that I might not really want to be in rather than just telling the truth about it. It is easier to tell a lie than it is to tell the truth. You don't have to reveal what is truly going on in your life, you can keep people at bay and at the surface with small little lies. In the book Jim says that we are usually appalled when we find out that we have been lied to, but I think that sometimes people are okay with accepting the little lie because they don't really want to know what's going on with you anyway. It's more effort on their part to actually deal with who you really are, so they accept the small lie on the surface because they don't want to go deep either. But easy isn't best. I feel like I have always known this, but when it comes right down to it, I still want easy in the midst of the hard. I have a hard time really remembering that it's the hard things that make me stronger, that make my faith grow, that change who I am. When I am in the middle of something hard, I just want it to be over. Somehow I want to make the connection in the moment - that this hard thing is producing something lasting - making it worth it.