Wednesday, June 2

Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart.
—Psalm 15:2

Truth and untruth always begin in the heart before they are ever unleashed from the mouth. The heart twirls around information and consequences to determine how much truth is safe to tell, and the mouth acts on the decisions of the heart. We know how this works.

When we are asked a question whose answer could put us at risk, we quickly run the question through the door of our mind to think of possible answers. But, like a stream of water seeking the lowest place, the question flows back and down into the cavern of our heart,where the possible answers are considered at a feeling level.

If we feel too fearful of the truth, we will temper it, massage it, or deny it altogether. It will be our feeling about the truth that will ultimately determine the words that are formed and spoken from our mouth.

Perhaps, this is one reason Jesus said that our hearts must remain pure. When our hearts are pure, we cannot hide the faces of truth and untruth. They stand out in bas-relief on a pure and empty canvas in our heart and the decisions we make about the words we will speak cannot be rationalized as not knowing, or forgetting, or not wanting to hurt someone else. 

We are immediately aware that the desire to speak untruth is really the desire for self-protection. When our hearts are pure, the truth and untruth are as clear as the day, and we make our choices in the full light of the sun.

O God, scrape my heart clean of the clutter that keeps me from being truthful with myself about the words of truth and untruth that I speak.

These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2004.