Over and over again, I am amazed at my capacity to be a crazy person. Do you ever feel that way? The most recent run-in with my psycho side happened this past weekend. My two best friends texted and asked to get brunch. I was meeting with my mentor, so I said no and encouraged them to do it without me. Their response was, “what about tonight? Sunday?” Why are they trying so hard to see me? Their persistence had only one probable cause in my crazy mind: they must be planning an intervention. Clearly I had been a bad friend recently and they really needed to confront me about it. That is the only logical reason they would go to such lengths to spend time with me.

I’m serious. I am actually crazy! This is how you know your mind is not in a good space – when instead of believing that an invitation is because people like you, you think it must be because they need to confront you about all your flaws.

It helped me realize that I was feeling as though everyone else around me must be disappointed with or mad at me too; it wasn’t just these two friends I was worried about. I get into these busy seasons where I try to fit everything in, with the goal of pleasing everyone and meeting everyone’s needs – and instead I end up feeling like I most certainly am disappointing everyone.

With the amazing things that God has been teaching me recently this all makes sense. Of course the devil would attack me in this way. Just when she was starting to believe that she is significant – just when she was able to do some fun and cool ministry things – I’ll just drop that thought in her head. She is such a disappointment.

He knows that if I get busy enough I will not take the time to identify lies and combat them with truth.

He knows that he can trick me into believing the only reason someone would want to spend time with me is to tell me what is wrong with me – rather than the upside down idea that my friends might actually just like me. What?!

Not to say I have been a perfect friend – the reality is that we will disappoint people (ugh that hurts). I may have let these friends or other friends down recently, actually I am sure that I have. But what I have to identify is the way the devil is whispering lies and the ways I am taking them in as truth.

In thinking about the purpose behind this blog, that is exactly what I have identified as what this space is all about. Communicating truth in a way that brings people into deeper relationship with the Lord. One of the biggest gifts we offer one another as friends, sisters & brothers in Christ, is to help combat the lies we hear with the truth of the gospel. I sat with another friend this week who was in the weeds of lies about her worth and identity. Isn’t it crazy how we are all struggling with the same things – the devil just twists them in a unique way for each of us? The beauty is that the Lord speaks truth uniquely and distinctively to us too. He redeems us, each, in our own beautiful way.

The Bible tells us to take this call seriously. We are called to truth – to seek it, to share it, to hold onto it. We are told to take captive the thoughts in our minds (2 Corinthians 10:5), which is how we examine and discern between truth and lies. I imagine a little child running around with a magnifying glass, catching bugs and examining them underneath it. Catch the thought, and call it what it is. “That is a lie from the pit of hell!” is a favorite phrase within my group of friends. Catch them, identify them, release them.

Jesus gave us specific instructions so that we can know truth: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)

If you have not yet seen Beauty and the Beast, you should. My favorite line (it is in the preview, actually) is when Belle first meets the Beast. She hears him, but cannot see him, and she says, “Come into the light.” This is the invitation we extend to one another, to bring our thoughts/crazy into the light so we can see them for what they really are. Sometimes it might be a hard truth that we need to really deal with. Sometimes it might be a lie that we are allowing to dictate how we live. The irony is that we so often don’t want to let go of the lies – they are familiar, and maybe even weirdly comfortable. But we know, because Jesus said it, that the truth will set us free. Come into the light, friend. Step into freedom!