Confronting the Lies

Every culture, every group of people, and every individual has a set of beliefs. Some of those beliefs are true and others are false.

For example, many people believe they are in some ways unlovable. They feel inferior and are prone to feel rejected or ashamed of who they are. this can happen from straight out abuse or it can come from what is called an orphan heart- a sense of not being adequately loved by one or more parents.

Another commonly believed lie is the opposite "I'm as good as the next person." ...

Both of these are lies because on the one hand the Bible tells us that God loves us with an everlasting love and on the other hand the Bible tells us that everyone falls short of the glory of God and that nobody is acceptable to Him on the basis of our good deeds.

Our whole lives- our attitudes, the decisions we make, our dreams and aspirations- are based on a tangle of truth and lies. As is usually the case, the health of our lives is dependent on the extemt to which our beliefs line up with the real world.

We can see the truth of this in the lives of other people, and to a lesser extent in our own lives. When people just believe the lies about themselves they become seriously unhealthy- physically, socially, emotionally, spiritually. It's harder to pick in ourselves of course, because by definition we can't tell which are the lies that we believe.

The solution is to align our lives with the Word of God and the Person of Jesus Christ. Jesus described himself as "the way, the truth and the life." When we follow Jesus and believe the Bible and start to act on that we are bringing our lives into line with the truth of God. The result is a much more balanced, fulfilling, healthy life.

What is true of an individual is also true of a nation.

Australia is a nation that has a lot of mixed up ideas about itself. Our culture is a mess of lies and half-truths mixed in with the occasional truth.

This became really clear to me last week when I was at the School of Apostolic Ministry.

On the way up, driving over the green rolling hills of what many people would describe as "outback Queensland" I was struck by how beautiful the country is. "Why on earth would anyone not want to live here?" I thought to myself. I mused about reasons why there are not more people living there and why there aren't more towns in that part of the world.

At the Conference Centre which is located almost on the beach at Emu Park (near Rockhampton), I was again struck by the beauty of the creation.

In conversations over the course of a few days, people would say things to me like, "You need to enjoy this while you are here", and "Isn't this absolutely beautiful?" The unspoken assumption underneath the words was that here at the beach is much more beautiful, superior and pleasant than that place you come from. Naturally I didn't pick this up the first couple of times, but when the same thoughts are expressed a dozen times in a couple of days, you start to recognise that something is being said.

I started to confront the lie by saying things like, "Don't you think there's just a bit too much blue in the picture?" and "It'd look a lot better if you moved that water out of the way and planted it with some nice yellow sunflowers."

The unspoken assumption is that coast is beautiful but the inland is a desolate, frightening, harsh and therefore lesser place.

This is a lie because it is factually not true. It is also a lie because it says that some parts of God's creation are somehow inferior and less worthy than other places.

Did God really slip up when He created the deserts and the mountains? I don't think so.

The lie has led our population to cling to the coast-line. From memory about 80% of our population lives within 100 km of the coast.

I don't think this has anything to do with geography or climate.

I do think it's about a wound in our spirit that continues to harm our economy, our social development and our national self-image.

It goes right back to 1788 when England dumped its unwanted criminals on our shores. For perhaps the only time in history, a nation was founded by people who really didn't want to be here. The convicts certainly didn't and their guards were reluctant also. There must have been a lot of anger and resentment and a general longing to go "home."

And so for the last 220 years, our population has hugged the coast-line in the futile, sub-conscious hope that one day the boats will return to take us "home."

It seems a bit pathetic when you express it like that, doesn't it?

But it explains why our great cities are nearly all on the coast, why NSW seems to stand for "Newcastle Sydney Wollongong" in our political leaders and in our media, why Sydneysiders are more familiar with Bali and San Francisco than Tamworth and Wagga Wagga, why people are prepared to spend their lives in bondage to the bank to have a house in Sydney when they could live for a fraction of the cost in the country, why people retire from inland towns to the supposed advantages of life on The Coast.

We need to repent of the lies and the bondages of our convict past.

We need to believe the truth that God saw ALL He had made and it was very good.

The good news is that God can heal the hurts caused by our faulty belief systems and make us whole again- whether an individual or a whole nation.