Facing The Uncomfortable Truth

I love to be ungrateful.
I love to hurt myself.
I love to cry myself to sleep.
I love to make bad decisions.
I love to have secrets.
I love to wear a mask.
I love to give up.
I love to relapse.

Most of us won’t admit it…we don’t exactly SAY all that, but we LIVE like we believe it. We have a tendency to weave our lives around these lies instead of the freedom found in the work of Christ on the cross.

Do you remember those commercials in the 80s, the ones with the guy running down the street in slow motion, sweat flying off his face, sweat seeping through his shirt? For a second you think he’s an athlete. For a moment you think this is a commercial about Wheaties or the Olympics. But then the camera pans back and we discover he’s being chased down by a police officer. Then, I don’t remember if it was words you read or a voice similar to the movie guy said, “Nobody says, ‘When I grow up I want to be a junkie.’”

The end.

I didn’t quite get it as a kid. I remember thinking OF COURSE NOT! I thought the commercial was stupid, not thought out at all. Way to state the obvious! Idiots. Fast-forward 20 years and this commercial kinda blows my mind. There’s so much wrapped up in those few seconds of sweaty slow motion running, so much TRUTH and I’m talking about the kinda truth nobody wants to talk about…UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH.

Paul, a dude in the Bible I draw lots of inspiration from because he was WAY more jacked up than I was, spoke of this UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH as well…

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing.
Romans 7:15,18-19 NIV84

We…wait, let me state this in a better way…I have a tendency to do the things I DON’T want to do. I KNOW what I should be doing, I KNOW the right thing to do, but I choose to do what I shouldn’t. I look for shortcuts. I cut corners. I lay down. I grow complacent. I stop chasing after Jesus and settle for the comfort of my couch. That’s me.  I’m the sweaty guy running away from the police officer. I’m the guy who didn’t say, “I want to be a junkie,” but did it anyways.

That's the UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH we must all face.

What am I doing that I know I shouldn’t be?
What I am not doing that I know I should be?

Then, once you answer those questions, what will be your next move?