Lies About Living Your Truth
In You Are Not Alone I name the six lies of a secular age that are forming us in unseen places. Recently I've been reflecting on each of them individually and feel stirred in my spirit to contend against them.
No matter how much we learn about the deforming power of our culture, transformation will only come when we put truth into action through the practices of resistance and renewal.
Today I invite you to contend against the lies of a secular age, and specifically want to encourage you to resist the first lie we face: "You need to be true to yourself."
"You need to be true to yourself" is culture's answer to the longing for identity.
It is the banner belief of secularism found in pithy statements like "live your truth" or "be true to you." Behind this simple phrase are the countless factions of a secular age merging together deceiving us. It is a lie filled with lies, but since it is wrapped in an expression of kindness and honor we often cannot see the power of its deception.
Every element of this lie is centered on a creatorless vision of the world. Human beings have a God-shaped longing for identity within them, and the unseen consequence of this little statement is how it forces human beings to be gods unto themselves.
This is a terrifying reality and the core reason behind a generation spiraling in suicidal ideation, mental illness, and anxiety disorders.
True identity can never be self-determined, it can only be received by the one who created it.
No more than an iPhone self-determine its identity apart from Apple, can we self-determine our identity apart from our creator. Therefore, if identity is not from you, there is no you to be true to in your search for identity. The longing for identity is driving the pain of a secular age, and we must minister to the wound it exposes.
Like all lies, there are elements of truth within secularism's claim. All profound lies are hidden in half truths. There is a you to be true to; but it is the you God has created you to be. There is beauty and originality and uniqueness within you, but it is found within the identity God has given you rather than determining it yourself.
Secularism says be true to yourself, but Jesus tells us to be true to the one who knows who we really are.
Many of us aren't affected by the totality of a lie, but rather smaller reimagined portions of it. As Christians often the temptation isn't to completely determine our own identity, but to barter with God for portions of it. Because the lie is smaller, it seeps in the cracks of our heart allowing secularism to take hold of core places of who we really are.
The idea of being true to our own created identity, rather than God's spoken identity over us, can show up in several ways.
Are you tempted to minimize obedience to Jesus because it means laying down something you don't want to give up?
Are you trying to find meaning and worth from performance or an idealized version of yourself rather than your identity as an adopted son or daughter in the family of God?
Are you justifying your way out of certain convictions of following Jesus because they don't feel in alignment with your desires?
All of these are symptoms and expressions of the lies of culture that we can curate our own identity. I don't minimize any of those questions or the longing that we carry to know who we really are. I just know the only person who can answer them is Jesus, and wherever we search for identity from ourselves, we will be left wanting.
Today, name a place where the lie "you need to be true to yourself" has found its way into your heart. Resist it. Take it before God and trusted community and name a spiritual practice that you can step into that protects your heart. Renew yourself the truth: take time to see what God and his Word speak over this specific place of identity. Offer this part of your heart back to Jesus and let his truth form who you really are.
Your identity is the foundation from which all other things in your life flow. I think you're too important to let lies form your future.