2 Shots Of Truth From TED

 

I have a few takeaways from my recent course called The Everyday Disciple and, although there is a lot that I got from it, I am going to narrow it down to two areas.  There was a song from 1988 by a band called Camouflage named "The Great Commandment."  I still listen to it here and there as there is something I just love about stark electronics.  I mention it here as our lives come down to the greatest commandment, to love God and love others.  And, these two areas that I wanted to discuss are imperitive if we are to do what the greatest commandent demands.

First, I would mention that you can't love others if you can't have healthy relationships.  And to do that takes effort in extending every grace we would like extended to ourselves.  Comparison is often called the thief of joy and it will steal your friendships.  Condemnation builds walls of indifference and is often hard to overcome when the person condemning is usually coming from a dais of high morality.  And, contradiction is the quickest way to start estrangement.  We can use any of these routes to end or slowly kill a relationship.  But as we know, that wouldn't be loving others, right?  It doesn't take much to be considerate and pause for a moment if you think you are going to say something that could come across badly... well, that's if you want to keep that particular friendship.

Key things that stuck in my head were that you can listen to people at different volumes.  Your spouse should probably be higher than the person you stand behind in line at the DMV.  Also, that most of us are sensitive to what other people say...wisdom would urge you to either choose your words carefully or take the more reasonable path.

Second, is that Billy Joel was right, "Honesty, is such a lonely word...," well, lack of it will leave you lonely.  Once you start on the path of that lie, it builds and builds into something you don't have control over.  Usually, once caught in a lie, your chance of recovering that connection you had with another person is extremely low.  That's why it is important that you have an order to your truth.  Be honest with God, be honest with yourself and then be honest with others.  I know several people that have rewritten memories of their past by telling a falsehood, then expanding that falsehood and, later, it becomes what they remember of the situation.  Lying hurts you as much as it hurts your relationship with others.

One of my favorite memories is getting keys made for our new home.  We picked up some other things at Home Depot that day but, after leaving the store with my son, I saw the keys were under one of the other items that we had purchased and that we didn't pay for the keys.  I had a moment there where I could have told David, "Their loss, our gain!"  But, what would that have done?  Would David think that it is alright to do sneaky things to get away without paying.  So, it was a moment to remind him that other people might do something else but it's what you do when people aren't looking that define you.  Integrity is owning up to mistakes and paying for them...no matter how small.

Thank you for sitting through this rambling but, overall, I feel that this course reinforced a lot of the things I already believed and others that I picked up in this first part of The Everyday Disciple.  I can't wait to see where the next section takes me.