February 24th, 2026

Hi Friends,

"Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself... loses all respect for himself and for others." — Fyodor Dostoevsky

“Deliver us from evil - from moral duplicity and weakness, from laziness and spiritual complacency, from those lies we tell ourselves from our fear of facing the truth.” — Rich Mullins

Lent is something like spring cleaning, except that we are focusing on the mess and clutter inside ourselves rather than the trails we leave on the outside (though those might be worthy of some disciplined effort as well). We recognize that we have accumulated “stuff” inside us that hinders our growth into Christlikeness and we decide to do something about that, to make an effort to clear things out or to spruce things up.

Surely, some of the most dangerous and persistent “dirt” within us are the lies we tell ourselves or the lies we chose to believe. As you can see from the quotes above, this is not my idea and it’s not a new idea by any means. The bible says that “as a man thinks within himself, so he is.” This works both positively and negatively. The simple fact is that most of us believe some lies, about ourselves, others, the way life should work, what it means to be a Christian, and so on.

The lies we believe are not obvious (or we would not believe them). They are insidious and usually part of the fabric of our operating system and the way we see reality. What makes them hard to discover, and even harder to eliminate, is that we think we benefit in some way by believing them. Ask any con man and he will tell you that he can’t con someone who isn’t willing to believe either an outright lie or a half-truth, usually about getting rich without having to work for it. We believe certain lies because it benefits us in some way. We feel superior, justified in our actions or beliefs, worthy, loved, needed, maligned to the point of being persecuted. We see this more easily in others than we do in ourselves. For example, a person complains that they keep losing jobs through no fault of their own and yet, after losing six jobs, they don’t even consider that they are the common denominator in all the job losses. Worse yet, they don’t think about asking what might be wrong with them.

Rooting out these lies involves several things. First, you must be willing, as well as open to the possibility. Second, you must be open to being uncomfortable because finding out you have believed or lived a lie is never pleasant. Third, you need the help of the Holy Spirit (“search me, O God, and know my heart …”). Fourth, you need to be reading scripture seriously (“the word of God is living and active … piercing to the thoughts and intentions of the heart”). Finally, you need to trust God to lovingly guide you to truth and to freedom. He wants this as much or more than you do and you can trust him.

Blessings!

Doug