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The Truth will make you free | |||
| by David Wood | ||||
| Home | ||||
| What is truth? Mike Harding - that
excruciating Northern comic, poet, folksinger and Rambler extraordinary -
tells how he became an atheist at the age of 8. During scripture at school
he had stuffed his fingers in his ears so that he couldn't hear properly and
was a thousand miles away when he was asked a question about who God is. He
tried to bluff his way out and got God mixed up with a rugby team -Trinity.
By this time the teacher had got up to his desk and was towering over him.
He had great, warty knuckles and raised them over Mike's head, ready to
crack on his skull. "God" - crunch- "is" - aw, sir! - "Love." - thumpin' 'eck!
Mike Harding: 'Tin still trying to work that one out." Hitting people over
the head with it never taught anyone the truth. A friend once had a French schoolboy to stay who resolutely refused to learn any English at all. One day in her frustration she shook him in the middle of the street and said - "Pierre, I am going to leech yew ow to Zpeek english eef eet eez zee last zing I du." You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. The Truth to me is the same as the word "God". That has come to me through my experiences. But so many people turn from that word because they have only experienced God as a bully or tyrant. 'You ought to believe this because it is good for you." God the spoilsport. The God who is out to get you if don't behave in a certain way. The God who tells you not to think, just have faith. Doubt is out. Each little package of doubt has a heavenly health warning. We still live in the aftermath of centuries of teaching about a Christian God who was supposed to be about love but really ruled by fear. Remember the Monty Python squelchy foot? The sort of God who stamps on his enemies. I meet so many good honest people of high integrity who had that sort of God rammed down their throats as a child as the Truth, so that when they reached mature years they walked right away, having nothing more to do with anything resembling religion. I cannot really describe "God" to you at all. It will come out like a prescription or a formula. Yet I believe that in the idea of God is contained the secret of who I really am. The truth about me and everyone else is hidden there. But I know what Untruth is and I can tell you about that. It is lies. From the smallest self-deception to the biggest whoppers. Lies is about not facing the truth. They corrupt us in the measure that we use them. When we turn on lies easily we are miles out to sea. If you feel good because you have got away with it, that's another self-deception. We all practise deceit to some extent, and sometimes layer upon layer, so that having started off as a liar in certain situations we go farther and farther in and become more and more tangled and devious and shifty. In the middle of a web, and we are still spinning it. I'm not talking about pathological liars, I'm talking about Mr and Mrs Nice who live in Ordinary Street. You and me. (Watch "Neighbours", it's full of ordinary liars). Keeping up with the Joneses, or envy, is a way of lying to yourself. I wish I was someone else. If only, if only, if only -. We all play parts and wear many masks, sometimes to impress, sometimes to hide away because we are afraid of what people will think of us "if they find out." Mr Good Guy, Mrs Immaculate, the one who is always right; getting it perfect or being squeaky clean; the one who doesn't need anyone's help - the list is endless. We all play games with ourselves and with others. We are all dishonest, we are all petty thieves. Are you getting indignant or feeling insulted? Sorry, but that's a sure sign that I'm telling the truth about untruths. The Bible has a phrase: "The Devil ('Evil) is the Father of Lies." It also has another phrase: "The Truth will set you free." It is not important to God whether you believe in God or not. It is important to God that you are growing free all the time from the things that close down your spirit, your soul. If as we recognise this about ourselves we determine to discard the garbage of Untruth, throw it out piece by piece, then each of us in our own unique way starts to discover what Truth is - and the Truth will set you free. |
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