It dawns on me that most of my blogs fall into the category of “Things to ponder”. I suppose that is because there are so many things over which I ponder. Maybe that is what happens when you get older. You wonder and think about more things. You become more philosophical about your life, or life in general. Well, I do, anyway.
“Truth vs. Reality”. What do I mean by this? I think we all know what reality is. It is the facts, objective information about your world that is indisputable. It is raining. The stock market closed up today. You have cancer, said the doctor. Wait a minute, aren’t these things also the truth? How can anything be real but not true?
If it is raining outside, the reality and the truth are in alignment. Same with the stock market. But if we hear a scary diagnosis from our doctor, the reality may be in his words, but the truth of who we are is NOT the disease. We are whole, perfect and complete individualizations of God. We were not meant to be “sick”. It is not the truth of who we are. This can be a challenging if not difficult concept to grasp. Not everyone can do it. It is not how most of us were raised. Reality equaled truth and vice versa. Nothing here to debate.
No doubt you have heard stories of people with life threatening diseases who lived well beyond the time they were given by their doctors or specialists. Many of them were cured completely, with no reasonable medical explanation. How is this possible? We call them miracles and maybe that is a good description. But I prefer to say that the truth of who they were was revealed and that truth did not include the disease.
I realize I am stepping into controversial and maybe even non-politically correct territory here. And that is okay. I do not expect everyone to agree with me on this. Let’s change the example to one that may be more acceptable. You are raised by people who tell you that you are stupid and will never amount to anything when you grow up. Tough words and certainly mean-spirited, not to mention life altering. But this was your reality. These words were said to you and you cannot erase them. They are real. But are they true? Probably not. Hopefully you proved them wrong. Or more importantly, proved to yourself that they were wrong. In this case, what was real and what was true about you were completely different. The problem comes in when you BELIEVE what your parents, teachers, or other authority figures in your life tell you. You see it as the truth of who you are when in fact reality and truth are very far apart. The best scenario is that you grow up realizing this and ignore their words to become an accomplished and content human . Sadly, many people take the ugly words to heart and bury them deep inside where they create a life less than the life that they deserve. Psychologists’ and Psychiatrists’ offices are filled with these people.
If you were ever told that you were not smart enough, not pretty enough, not anything enough, look at those words carefully. The words are real, but are they true for you? Make the decision early on if they are not and throw those words away, shred them like your personal documents, incinerate them like the trash that they are.
I used to tell my teenage son (now a grown man) to pay attention to how he sees himself rather than how others see him. What others may say about him is not nearly as valuable as what HE says about himself. We walk around believing certain things about ourselves. Then we act according to our beliefs. If you think you are talented, you will go forward and show the world your talent, with confidence and pride. If you are talented but others have told you the opposite, then you will probably not pursue your talents or try half-heartedly, knowing that you will probably fail.
I cannot tell you how important it is to look at the difference between what is real and what is true. It can change the quality of your life. You are a beautiful and perfect child of God. Believe it! It is the Truth of who you are!