BY BILL REAGAN
“If you tell the truth, it becomes part of your past. If you tell a lie it becomes part of your future.” (source unknown) A great deal of the stress we experience comes from two very similar attitudes – guilt and worry. Guilt brings the past into the present. Worry is living in the future today. Both guilt and worry are really about failing to deal with the truth.
You have a past. You have done wrong things in your past. Guilt is the lack of resolution about that truth. We tend to do one of three things when dealing with wrongness in our past.
One is to pretend the wrong thing didn’t happen. The second is to blame someone else for our faults. Third is to fault the broken rule, to say the offense is not really an offense because the broken rule was unfair, or trivial, or not applicable.
The only way to put and keep the past in the past is to tell the truth. In the church we call this repentance and confession. Repentance and confession call for one elusive attribute – humility. Many believe that humility diminishes them in some way. We repeat the same failures and offenses over and over again because we are not humble enough to acknowledge the truth of our guilt.
We worry because we believe the lie that we are more important than we really are. The consequences of the truth may be difficult, but “the truth sets you free.” In the church we call this faith.
Living the lie is choosing to worry. You never know what new lie you have to invent to cover up the old one. Lies build up on each other until the weight of the lie finally crushes you. You can never relax because someone, some day, will find out the truth. And it won’t be on your terms.
Like repentance and confession, faith requires humility.
Try some humility. You’ll be surprised at the way your worry and guilt slip away.
Bill Reagan is executive director of Loaves & Fishes of the Rio Grande Valley.
