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You
don’t have to know anything to tell the truth.
That’s because I am defining the truth as follows: The
truth is what you know in the deepest part of your being to be
true.
So
if your reasoning and experience tells you something is true
and you tell the truth as you see it, then you’re telling
the truth. At the same time, if you’re dedicated to
telling the truth, you inevitably will, on occasion, be
confronted with information that will challenge some of what
you believed to be true in the past. If you are still
committed to telling the truth, you will tell the truth as you
experience it now, which will be different from what you once
thought it was, or said it was. That can be
embarrassing.
Nevertheless,
if you are committed to telling the truth you will eventually
become very smart. At the same time, you will eventually
come to realize, if you are committed to telling the truth,
that for you the truth changes. And so, if you are
honest with yourself, you will become somewhat humble in the
way you express your truth because you will know that it’s
always possible that there may be a deeper understanding still
that you have yet to realize about what you think you know is
true.
I
believe honesty (or intellectual integrity) is the road to
deeper understanding. If your ego gets in the way of
telling the truth to the point that you remain steadfast to
what you once said, even though over time your experience has
broadened your understanding to the point that what you once
said is not what you really believe anymore (or even if you
refuse to consider what you suspect might challenge your
truth), then you will become stuck, and your truth will be
compromised, and that will be a block to deeper and greater
understanding.
I
once wrote and I think it’s still true, that “when you
tell the truth, God gives you more truth to tell.”
If you stop telling the truth you can find yourself
adhering to illusion for a long time.
A corollary to that might be that if you stop telling
the truth about any one thing, your ability to expand your
understanding about any one thing might very well be
compromised.
God
is real and not a myth. I
don’t presume to have God’s wisdom, and I readily admit
that to me God sometimes seems to work in mysterious ways.
Nevertheless, I do believe God appreciates the efforts
that people make trying to maintain their integrity, and I
think overall integrity leads to greater understanding with
God’s help.
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