Progression

Optical Illusion: Liar?

 

Recently, on social media, I saw a brain teaser trending. It was an image that, at first glance, looked like a face. It stated, “Share when you see a word,” asking us to look beyond this face value.

And, upon doing so, at a certain angle, one can see a dotted “I” where the nose/nostril is, along with an “a” for the mouth and an “r” creating the chin and neck. And starting the entire face, there is an elaborate “L,” making up the two eyes.

So, when we spell the face, what word do we get?

Answer: liar.

The face of addiction, right there, ladies and gentlemen.

The old joke asks,

How do you tell if an addict is lying?

Answer: His/her lips are moving.

That’s some punchline truth, isn’t it?

Yes, if you and I look at any form of our addictions, we inevitably encounter the role our deception plays in their proliferation and their destruction of all we hold dear.

Scripture has much to say about truth versus lies, offering warnings and consequences about the paths we choose. And we can see those spiritual principles in the twelve steps. There’s incredible benefit in applying them should we choose to do so.

The first step confronts our powerlessness.

1.      We admitted we were powerless over our addiction - that our lives had become unmanageable.

That usually shows up as a chaotic life, also known as trouble.

“He whose tongue is deceitful falls into trouble.”

Proverbs 17:20

If the disease is our addiction, then one of the first glaring symptoms we experience is any kind of problem: relational, marital, financial, physical or legal are a few examples of reality showcasing how unmanageable our lives have become.

Therefore, cue step number two...

We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

As we’re sorting through our individual representations of trouble, we hit a reality wall of needing God. In short, we have to tell the truth to and about ourselves.

And that’s no easy feat. For, to operate in addiction, deception has become our “go-to,” rescuing us from confrontation, responsibility, failure and uncomfortable situations.

“You love evil rather than good, falsehood rather than speaking the truth.”

Psalm 52:3

But, before we fall in love with our lying ways all over again, we need to remind ourselves that our rock bottoms were all too painfully real.

We need to remember our lies got us into the mess; God and His Truth, therefore, will need to help extricate us from our various disasters.

So, we are in a moment like no other. We need to decide what to do with our addictions and our God. We need to answer a question. Will we accept or reject His intervention in our lives?

Yes...or no?

This is called a decision. It’s also called the next step. Do we take it?

3.      We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

God, by His very Nature, cannot lie (Numbers 23:19). Therefore, if we expect to bring lies and excuses instead of brutal truth before Him, we are not going to get the results we desire or need. And whatever results we DO obtain, will not be sustained.

“Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment.”

Proverbs 12:19

Again, we see the protection which comes from being in the truth...

“The truth shall set you free.”

John 8:32

But that truth does not promise to be easy or painless. Often, facing truth is the hardest thing we will ever do.

This, therefore, is the work of steps four through nine...

4.      We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5.      We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6.      We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7.      We humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8.      We made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9.      We made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

These steps are focused on changed behavior. They exchange a destructive one for a healthier one. These steps exchange lies for truth, evasiveness for transparency. The reasons for these exchanges involve the relational, human experience and our need to repair whatever damage we have caused.

“Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.”

Ephesians 4:25

Scripture, again, brings it home: “we are all members of one body.”

And this friendly reminder sets the stage for the purpose of the remaining steps, ten through twelve...

10.  We continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

11.  We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12.  Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

We started in a place of confronting and accepting ugly truth; then, we accepted God’s help with it. Next, we needed to face and change behavior in the relational context, accepting how our addiction caused pain and destruction. Those are all important. But there’s still more work to do.

The “more” of that work refers to its ongoing nature. We need to keep doing it. What is the recovery adage?

“It works if you work it.”

Scripture, the twelve steps and truth all act as guardrails, hedging us in safely. And that is a key point to remember as we choose truth over deception. It’s more than just being a good, honest person; it is also about being a healthy, honest person.

“The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.”

Proverbs 11:3

In recovery, the expression goes, “You’re as sick as your secrets.”

And, for most of us, those secrets are some version of a lie- and some form of impending destruction.

Therefore, as we deal with our addictions and recovery from them, we need to do more than just work the steps and the reading of some Bible verses. We need to truly examine how both truth and deception operate in our lives- even to this day. Like the image brain teaser, when we study what we think we already see, is there, in fact, something quite different there?

And then, what are we going to do with that optical illusion’s actual truth?

Copyright © 2016 by Sheryle Cruse

 

Please consider this before...

There's a Tiger in the Puddle

Seeing the World...

Girl at the Mirror

 

“For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”

1 Corinthians 13:12

Image is a powerful thing. And there, perhaps, is nothing more potent, image-wise, that that of our own reflection in the mirror.

One of my favorite art pieces is that of Norman Rockwell’s “Girl at the Mirror.” It originally appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post on March 6, 1954.

 

 

And, even though decades have come and gone, its truth still resonates: a female, longingly viewing her own reflection in the mirror. We are left to fill in the blanks of what she is thinking.

Is she happy with what she sees? Does she see herself as fat or ugly? Is she judging herself against another female?

In Rockwell’s famous artwork, we see, for ourselves, this girl, probably around age twelve, is at a crossroads. She has, strewn around her, both a doll and lipstick. She also has a magazine in her lap, opened to a page featuring Hollywood film star and beauty icon, Jane Russell.

Again, the items may look dated in the piece, yet, universally, most females have, at one time re-created this scenario for themselves.

I did. And part of the destructive nature involved the fact I did not know and apply God’s estimation of me.

“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he...”

Proverbs 23:7

His definition of my reflection, is, after all, radically different from any cultural view or time period.

“‘…For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’”

1 Samuel 16:7

Therefore, it would do us all tremendous good to look at His perspective as we look at our mirror reflection...

 “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass. And, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.”

James 1:22-24

Provided below are some affirming scriptures concerning our beauty and our value. Both are beyond skin deep. God is besotted with us, rejoices concerning us and considers each of us masterpieces of His Creation.

Therefore, see yourself, your true reflection in these scriptures!

Song of Solomon:

1:15: “Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes.”

2:14: “O my dove…let me see your form…for your form is lovely.” 

4:1: “Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes...”

4:7: “Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.”

Love and celebrate who you are!!!

 “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

2 Corinthians 3:18

Copyright © 2016 by Sheryle Cruse

 

The Unbelief Challenge

 

There’s a familiar saying out there, “Where the mind goes, the body will follow.” And yes, that’s often the tricky part.

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he...”

Proverbs 23:7

How many of us have gotten into all sorts of trouble by following our mind’s direction?

Our beliefs can either work for or against us. They take us to all kinds of places; some of them are undesirable.

Years ago, a major turning point for me, not only in my eating disorder recovery, but also my relationship with God was the scripture, Mark 9:24:

“Lord, I believe. Help Thou my unbelief.”

That little ditty nailed where my thinking was. Simply stated, I didn’t think I could believe enough in anything: who I was, life, hope and God. Faith- whatever it was and however I went about it- wasn’t “enough.” I was subpar, defective. Indeed, I went to such a great place, all courtesy of my thoughts. And I didn’t know how to get out.

I had reached a place through my eating disorders, be it anorexia, bulimia or binge eating, that I believed God hated me, was finished me and was going to send me straight to hell. My perfectionistic thoughts had completely obliterated grace or room for any error. Add to that, increasing amounts of guilt and shame from my behaviors, which included theft and lying, and I reached a point of no return. I was “un-save-able.” I was hopeless.

So, when I encountered Mark 9:24, it validated my struggles with doubt. Ecclesiastes states “there is nothing new under the sun.” So, when I hit upon that ninth chapter in Mark, uttered by a man, centuries earlier, it sent the reassurance I needed. I was not alone, the only hopeless person to ever think this way. And before Mark 9:24’s zinger, there was the set up scripture of the twenty-third verse:

“Jesus said unto him, ‘If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.’”        

Ordinarily, this would have caused me to despair, if I stopped short by only focusing on me. For example, if Jesus was only telling me it was up to me to “believe right,” then, let’s face it, I’m a goner.

But again, way back when, He responded to another person, a doubting person, a person challenged in the area of confidence, so much so, Mark 9:24 was his only comeback.

“Lord, I believe. Help Thou my unbelief.”

Perhaps, this was an early template of the Twelve Steps. After all, it’s about the real state of things. It’s about acknowledging something bigger than us, not us, in our own strength, to be our answer. And it’s about a lifelong commitment to focus in that direction.

1.      We admitted we were powerless over a substance or behavior - that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. We humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. We made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. We continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
11. We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

It’s not perfect; it’s fraught with stumbles and setbacks. It requires awareness. And, long before we were aware of our weak spots or failures, God, however, was.

“For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.”

Psalms 103:14

He’s not shocked or intimidated by exactly where we are and where our thinking has landed us. He knows. And He has it within His control. The key point, however, is to go with, not against, that principle. And it’s a messy work in progress to do just that. It requires us yelling an ancient spiritual word in our lives:

“Help!”

For, as much as we’d like to believe we’re in control, we are not. It IS about asking for help. It covers not only the disasters we may find ourselves in, but also what led up to them. It covers beliefs...and un-beliefs.

“Lord, I believe. Help Thou my unbelief.”

And so, whether it’s a first time revelation or a refresher course, let’s choose, right where are, to recalibrate the focus of our beliefs and turn them to God.

We do believe something, after all. It would probably do us some good, then, to have His help with this reality.

Copyright © 2016 by Sheryle Cruse