Live Your Truth and Other Lies (Interview)

Have you over-promised and under-delivered on something? I have… many times. Several years ago, my wife had surgery on her ankle and was recovering for an entire summer. This meant dad was in charge of summer activities for our two young girls. We called it “the summer of daddy.” 👍 We came up with several fun activities and our goal was to complete all of them by the time school stated in the Fall.🍁 For some reason, the one activity my girls were excited about the most was “park day.” This event consisted of visiting every park in our city in the same day. I actually only wrote this down because I had run out of ideas. They were really excited. In order to hype up the fun, I told them it was going to be awesome. Greatest day ever. I might have over-promised the awesomeness. When the day came to have “park day,” I could tell they were way too excited. They were acting the same as if it were Christmas morning. We were going to visit 5 different parks…… and… then what? It went about as well as you can imagine. We went to the first park, went down the slide 🛝, enjoyed the swings for about 5 minutes, and they were ready for the next place. The second park was the same. By the time we arrived at the third park, the day had stared to fall apart. The good thing was, back then, all problems could disappear with ice cream 🍦. They still thought the day was a success because they were allowed to order whatever they wanted at the ice cream shop. However, I learned a valuable lesson about over-promising.

Alisa Childers has become one of my favorite apologist. (Someone who defends Christianity.) She is about to release a new book entitled “Live Your Truth and Other Lies.” In this book, Alisa talks about how our modern culture continues to over-promise with ideas that glorify self making life in our image. Even worse is the idea that many in the Christian world has doubled-down on some of these concepts. The issue is most of these lies don’t work in the real world. They actually leave people feeling more hallow than when they started. The answer seems to be to go even harder with these lies and the spiral continues. I’ve been looking forward to getting this book and seeing which lies she tackles and how she is able to redeem a Christian worldview from all the noise. Below is one of her recent interviews with another of my favorite apologist and some of my favorite takeaways.

Before you watch, this is something I have been pondering latley...
I think the hardest thing for Christians to do in today’s culture is confront ideas that sound so good.

Culture says to have fun in the moment. Christianity says to have joy and it takes a lifetime.
Culture says to always put yourself first. Christianity says to place God first then others.
Culture says to have it your way. Christianity says to live God’s way.
Culture says if it is true what you make it. Christianity says there is only one truth and it is observable.

How do we do this with winsome directness out of sincere love? Good question. It sounds like we're just being a "party pooper." I guess it comes down to our heart, our motivation, our relationship with others, and more. The goal is not to shout this truth from some high place. It is to be with people, live among others, and walk toward the light together.

Book link: https://alisachilders.com/live-your-truth-and-other-lies/

Book Synopsis- Are you tired of feeling like you have to check social media to find out what you're supposed to think? Are you weary of the latest self-help books that promise to set you free but only imprison you with laundry lists of studies to consider, positive affirmations to recite, and Facebook groups to join?

We've all seen the memes that populate the internet: live your truth, follow your heart, you only have one life to live. They sound nice and positive. But what if these slogans are actually lies that unhinge us from reality and leave us anxious and exhausted? “Another Gospel?” author Alisa Childers invites you to examine modern lies that are disguised as truths in today's culture. Everyday messages of peace, fulfillment, and empowerment swirl around social media. On the surface, they seem like sentiments of freedom and hope, but in reality they are deeply deceptive. In Live Your Truth (and Other Lies), Alisa will help you to: uncover the common lies repeated within progressive circles hold on to the soul-restoring truths that God's Word offers be empowered to live the way your Creator designed you. Being the captain of your own destiny and striving to make your dreams a reality is a huge burden that you were never meant to bear. Discover true freedom instead.

This is going to be a great book. Here were a few lies she mentioned that I look forward to hearing her untangle even more:

Lie- "Yolo" (You only live once)
Truth- This is actually a dangerous perspective and is anti-gospel. The Good News of the Gospel is that this life is NOT all there is. We can live with an eternal perspective. Because of this, we have the ability to live with a 'long game' approach to life. Therefore, we don't have to be reckless because we only live once. We can be consistent in our holiness because eternity is actually the 'main event.'
Lie- God wants me happy.
Truth- God is more interested in joy and our freedom. This means we will go through various situations that will bring unhappiness, discontent, suffering, and more. Any parent knows that a childs moment-by-moment happiness cannot be our goal. It is simply impossible and can be downright dangerous. If our child says they want to play in the street during rush hour because they enjoy seeing all the cars swerve to miss hitting them, we don't indulge their fun. (Well, if you do, you have more problems than this blog post can address.) We snatch them out of the road for their own safety and the safety of others. While doing so, they will cry and complain that we are ruining their fun. How many times does God 'ruin our fun' and we complain? He is saving our lives, but all we see is our lack of good times. The biggest issue with this is how we define the words happiness and joy. I look forward to hearing her break this down even further.
Lie- In all cases, “Don’t Judge.”
Truth- I cannot tell you how many times I have been hit in the face with this one. People don't seem to mind if you declare something as true unless they don't agree. Then it is called judgment. When you read the verses that talk about not judging others, most of us are not interpreting it correctly. There is a big difference between stating truth and declaring a sentence on someone. This will be a good topic for her to parse out the differences.
Lie- Love means accepting everything. If you don't let me "do me," you don't love me.
Truth- Once again, this is simply just not possible. It sounds really good but I don't think people have really thought this one through. Alisa talks about her issues with an eating disorder. Because she had a friend who loved her, that friend confronted Alisa about this harmful problem. Sometimes it is more loving to disagree. When a little child says they are superman, we indulge thier imagination. We know they are not really superman, but we play along with the understanding there are limitations. We no longer indulge when they say they are going to jump off a building so they can fly. There is a limit of no longer indulging ideas that are deemed harmful.

This is going to be a great resource.