Honesty & Truth

I've always liked to make a distinction between Honesty and Truth.

Honesty requires the courage to bear your soul. It is the first step in a whole-hearted pursuit of God. It is, however, an extremely difficult first step. That is why I do not find it surprising that many people cease the journey and choose to rest in a subjective "truth." The supreme effort required to openly "own" all personal experiences, secrets, and perspectives is soon followed by the painful experience of having those perspectives begin the "refinement" process towards objective truth. This, unsurprisingly, causes a psychological stubbornness in the soul of the seeker. Becoming openly honest is quite often the first psychologically painful experience a person endures. That is why so many people cling to their unrefined opinions. Things that have been earned with innumerable tears are tenaciously clung to. However, if they never mature beyond their own perspective, then they will never find God. Instead, they will cling to their own scars, experiences, and feelings while anesthetizing their desire for the God of objective Truth with a false belief in the subjectivity of "truth."

They choose to hide behind honesty.

Finding the Truth requires the courage to step beyond honesty and to allow your perspective to be shaped by the objective reality of others. However, it also requires the wisdom to realize that not only is your own "honest" perspective full of illusions and selfish psychological defensive schemes that you are unable to pierce through on your own no matter how "honest" you may be, but also that everyone else struggles with similar illusions to varying degrees. Prudence, too, is required in order to recognize that the most practical way to abolish these illusions is to focus on piercing the illusions you did not create yourself. Even the wisest man in the world can not dispel his own illusions as quickly and effectively as an honest fool may. Our illusions defend us from ourselves. We need others to see through them as well as the humility to realize they can. Thus, the pursuit of Truth must be a communal activity of the wise and honest. Those who realize these things begin the difficult--and often quite painful--refinement of subjective honesty into objective Truth.

They choose to live by the Truth.