Have you ever been convinced that the sky is purple? I have. For the longest time, I was absolutely sure that the sky was purple. People would attempt to tell me about the blue above. They would tell me all about the white clouds with the blue backdrop, but I wouldn’t believe them. When I looked up, all I saw was purple.
Then one day I woke up, looked outside and…blue sky! I was dumbfounded. I had been holding onto my purple-sky belief so tenaciously that I had never allowed any other option into my thinking. As I gazed at the azure arc, I couldn’t help but feel regret for some of the harm my incorrect belief had caused.
Now, obviously, (I hope) the purple-sky-belief is a metaphor. However, I have held some false beliefs that have been just as blatantly untrue. Unfortunately, this has happened to me more than once in my life. Some mistaken beliefs I have held onto more tightly and fiercely, (and to different degrees of destructiveness in my life) than others, but even small stubbornesses have caused their share of problems.
The strange thing is that even though I know this tendency about myself, it is too easy to look at other people sometimes and be extremely critical of their beliefs. From my perspective, their beliefs are so far off-base that they should be obvious to them. Instead of trying to meet someone where they are at and really try to hear how they came to their belief, it can be so much easier to criticize from a distance. I am very thankful that when I have held some majorly incorrect beliefs, I have had loving friends and mentors gently lead me to the truth.
There is someone else who is devoted to us knowing the truth as well, someone who knows us even better than we know ourselves because He is the one who created us. Jesus knows all of the twists and turns in our lives, all of the hurts and barriers that can keep us from the truth and ultimately from peace. Because that is what real truth creates in our lives–peace. Jesus said that He is the way, the truth and the life. He came as truth that leads to life and peace in our souls. This is really good news. First, because that means there is real, knowable truth to be found and secondly Jesus wants to help us find it through a relationship with Him.
I know that I most likely still have purple-sky-beliefs in my own life, but I am trying to be more open to my husband, friends, mentors, professors and especially Jesus pointing them out to me. It is not easy to let go of deeply held beliefs or to even have the desire to examine our beliefs, but I pray that we will be able to see clearly the truth that Jesus offers all of us.
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in His holy people, and His incomparably great power for us who believe.” Ephesians 1:18-19a
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