Nobody likes unwanted news. We don’t want to believe that a diagnosis is dire, or our behaviors are destructive. We don’t like to hear that someone important to us is not who we thought they were — we won’t accept that a person we’re invested in is a thief, a traitor, an adulterer, or an abuser. Some of us will do anything to avoid unwanted truths like these.

To cope personally, or to save face publicly, we spin or outright deny the facts — it’s remarkable how spectacularly we pull off mental contortionism in our quest to disguise them.

Which is silly if you stop and think about it. No amount of distortion, denial, fabrication, justification, deflection, or delusionment will ever change truth. Like it or not, truth is what it is.

Isn’t it a marvel that people who initially choose deceit out of shame or inability to cope, quickly progress to actually believing their own lies? They developed habits of deceitfulness, and expect others to adopt their deluded thinking. They slipped unaware into a lifestyle of lies, then wonder why they are off-putting to others. Their relationships, home, work and social lives suffer. Ever so insidiously, their physical and mental health are impacted. Persistence in untruths only compounded their troubles.

All of that extra web of entanglement could have been avoided. The truth would have set them free, and kept them free. As difficult as it seemed, even those truths they despised were best acknowledged and dealt with.

The good news is, it’s never too late to start fresh. And none of us has to do it alone — God will come alongside us to bravely handle even the most agonizing of truths. The benefits of trusting him to do so are immeasurable, including freedom from mental and emotional turmoil. If we want and allow him to, he will transform our tangled thinking into healthy truthfulness.

He will accomplish it in a way and at a speed that is best for each of us. If we need to slowly come face-to-face with painful, difficult facts, he’ll do it slowly. If we need swift and full immersion in unmitigated reality, he’ll do that instead. He knows us intimately, and much, much more than we know ourselves — if we allow him to, he’ll do what is best for us. He’ll personalize his perfect intervention, knowing and understanding fully why we accumulated all of our ridiculous dysfunctions.

Let God peel back the layers of amassed issues that were caused by untruths. Wait on him. Be at peace with not always understanding everything as he exposes and corrects wrong-thinking, and assists us in developing new, factual, healthy thought patterns and behaviors.

Trust that he is at work upending the chaos that chronic lies caused, for our long-term good. That’s the truth of it — truth is always our friend.

John 8:32 – “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Romans 12:2 – Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Philippians 4:19 – And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.