Truth Begins in the Dirt

The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him in truth.
Psalm 145:18 NKJV

The last time I wrote about the importance of calling upon the Lord in truth, I addressed the need to take the whole truth of our hearts to Him – not just the parts that we considered ‘good’ or proper. Today I see another level in this psalm. When I call on God, am I standing ‘in truth?’ Am I in reality or am I in delusion? The Truth is Jesus Christ and He’s in the heavens, but He’s also in the dirt. Fully human, fully divine—the Truth is as much a paradox as Jesus. If I won’t plant my feet in the dirt, in the complete reality of who I am and what I’ve done apart from Him, then I am NOT ‘in truth.’

Taking responsibility for my entire life in absolute truth and reality came before everything else. Surrender, repentance, deliverance, healing, revelation—all half-baked and ultimately fruitless endeavors unless they’re born of truth. If I’m rooted in delusion, then nothing I do or say will prosper because it isn’t true. The love of God came to me first and foremost, but it was meant to gird my heart so that I could step into the reality of my life. God’s love is never intended to pet us in our delusions and comfort us there. It’s meant to call us out into the truth.

Blinded to the Truth

Bitterness, jealousy, self-pity, entitlement, blame, and ingratitude—these are all delusions that keep us from reality. When we’re in them, we just can’t see anything as it actually is. Bitterness tunnels our vision so that we see only our own pain. Jealousy colors every situation so that we see only what other people have that we want. Self-pity rewrites our stories in real time so that we see ourselves as ever and always the victim of a hard life and a harder God. Entitlement blows smoke so dense that we actually see ourselves as deserving of our every desire. Blame covers our own accountability and responsibility so thickly that we see every difficulty as the fault of others. And ingratitude? Ingratitude warps every blessing into a curse until all we see is what we don’t have, and that justifies our hatred of God.

Before I could be saved, I had to need a Savior. It wasn’t enough to need a Savior because the Bible said so. That woke me up, but it didn’t take me through the narrow gate. I had to have my eyes opened to the truth of my brutal being. I had to see myself as I really was! I had to receive the reality that every last part of me was selfish – self-loving, self-serving, self-preserving, self-promoting, self-indulging. I had to see that nothing I’d ever done was for love of someone else first, that every act of so-called goodness was rooted in that selfishness. Only when I put my feet in the dirt and stepped into the Light of Truth did I see myself in all reality. Then – and ONLY then – did I truly need a Savior. Standing in the truth of my broken, brutal being, I cried out to God with my whole heart, “Save me, please!” And He did.

The Truth is in the dirt and in the heavens. Both! But it starts with the dirt. When we put our feet in the dirt and receive the whole truth of who we are and what we’ve done, Jesus takes care of bringing in the heavens.

Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal truthfully are His delight.
Proverbs 12:22 NKJV