We have all heard that the truth will set us free. We have been taught from a young age that we are supposed to tell the truth, and we try to teach others the same concept, but when it comes to being truthful with ourselves, we often fail. We are great avoiders. We want to project a certain image to others and ourselves, so we often live in denial. Living in denial does not lead to peace. We think that it does, because when we live in denial we have a sense of false peace. It is a sense of false peace because we are just delaying the inevitable and we are making our suffering private.

We live in denial about a multitude of things. Our marriage is falling apart, our spouse has been unfaithful, our child is on drugs, our child is getting a divorce, our child has a disability and will never lead an independent life, our father has a drinking problem, or our friend is taking advantage of us. The list goes on and on. For every situation we find ourselves in we make excuses and live in denial.

We refuse to face them for a variety of reasons. It is often because of shame and pride. We want everybody to think our lives are perfect and that we have all the answers. We think that if people really knew the truth they would not respect us or want us in their lives. We sell people short, so the private suffering continues. Many times, our denial is so deep that we do not even let God in. We just keep living our lives and trying to deal with these situations the best way we can. We make excuses and justify the situations in a million ways. This goes on for so long that it eventually starts to affect our lives, and we find that we have no peace. We begin to turn inward and pull away from everyone we know including God. So the question becomes why would we want to face these situations on our own?

God has placed people in our lives to help us, and even when we feel like we cannot lean on the people in our lives, we can always turn to God. He is always there for us. He will provide comfort and hope for us. The first thing we have to do, though, is be honest with ourselves and admit that there is a problem. Once we admit that there is a problem we are on the road to recovery. The second step is to bring the problem to God and let Him direct our path. If we allow God to direct our path in these situations, it will help us have confidence that we are doing the right thing. God wants us to face our problems. He does not want us to live in denial. God wants us to wake from our slumber, face reality, and take the appropriate course of action.

It will be difficult to face the reality of the situations because many of us have spent years hiding our problems and living in the altered reality that we have created. Dealing with a problem with truthfulness and honesty will eventually lead to peace. When we truthfully confront the situation with God’s guidance, we will come to terms with the situation, accept it, and our peace will be restored. We have to pray to God and ask Him to help us. He will help us. God is powerful, and He can change any situation in our lives if we let Him.

Praying to God doesn’t mean that the answer will be what we want, but it will be what we need, and God will even give us peace over the answer that He knows is best for us. When we truly have peace in our lives and truly have faith in God and believe that He knows best, we can have peace over every situation, no matter how difficult it may be. God can make a way where we think there is no way. We just have to let Him guide us and let Him solve the problem in His time.

I know how difficult facing reality can be. It is embarrassing, scary, and humbling, but we have to do it. If we do not face reality and bring our private struggles to God, we will never have peace over it, and we will always struggle with it. There comes a time in all of our lives where we have to lay the burden of denial down and say, “This is me. I am flawed, but I accept my flaws.” When we do that and take it to God, we will be on our way to peace. When we face the reality of life we can be more honest with ourselves and others. Others will find inspiration in our struggles and will look to us to see how we deal with them. Hiding our problems from God is never a good idea. He knows the truth anyway.

So, let’s all try harder to face reality, to admit that there is a problem, to take it to God and let Him handle it. When we do that we will be free of the shame, the embarrassment, and the fear. We will have hope and peace in our lives, and PEACE MATTERS!

~Dan~