The truth does not flatter.
It frees.
In our world and reality today, people often hate, fear, and avoid truth. Why? Because truth does not coddle us. It calls us out of darkness and into light. It strips away illusions until we are face to face with the reality of who we are and who God is. It is disruptive, but only because it breaks chains.
Illusions, by contrast, are easy to carry because they do not demand change. They soothe us in the moment and make us believe we are safe. But what they really provide is a cage that keeps us from living in the freedom God intended.
Jesus warned about this constantly. He said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). He also told us that the truth would not be welcomed by all. When He spoke plainly, people turned away because His words cut through the illusions they wanted to keep. The Pharisees clung to their illusions of power and righteousness, and the crowds clung to illusions of what kind of Messiah they wanted Him to be. Truth shattered both.
Illusions feel protective in the short term, but they blind us. They keep us in darkness. Christ said that people “loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). Light exposes what is hidden. That exposure can feel painful, even humiliating, but it is the very act of being brought into the light that begins the process of healing and renewal.
Truth is not gentle in the way illusion is. Illusion coddles. Truth convicts. Illusion whispers what our ego wants to hear. Truth speaks to the spirit that longs to be made whole. Illusion binds us to cycles of fear and comfort. Truth interrupts those cycles and leads us into life.
I will be exploring this with more depth in two upcoming reflections: Discernment in the Age of Spectacle and Noise of Ego vs. Voice of Spirit. I mention them here because truth and illusion never exist in isolation. They show up in how we filter the noise of the world, and in how we choose to listen either to ego or to Spirit. These future pieces will expand on how illusions are sustained and how discernment leads us past them into freedom.
Christ gave us living examples of this reality. When the rich young ruler clung to the illusion of his own goodness, Jesus spoke the truth that exposed his heart: “Go, sell all you have and follow Me” (Matthew 19:21). When Peter clung to the illusion of a Messiah who would never suffer, Jesus rebuked him: “Get behind me, Satan. You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns” (Matthew 16:23). In both cases, the illusion felt easier to keep, but the truth was what could set them free.
The truth does not coddle.
It frees.
As we continue forward in our journeys, it is vital to remember this: truth is not our enemy. It is the light by which we see clearly. We must learn to value the truth, and to honor those who dare to speak it, rather than hating them or trying to silence them. To reject truth is to remain in chains. To receive it is to walk in freedom.
The Twin Tree Project 