THE GALLERY OF LIES
Follow your heart.
From the time we start watching Disney movies as a kid, American culture teaches us that we should trust and follow our hearts (where your heart represents your inner emotions, desires, and inclinations). Pursue your passions. Do whatever your hearts compel you to do. This gets reinforced through music - like Sheryl Crow's" "If it makes you happy, it can't be that bad." - and through celebrities, like Woody Allen's famous line: "The heart wants what it wants."
The idea that you should follow your heart is very popular. But is it true? And is it good?
Ancient wisdom would say no. The ancient Jewish prophet Jeremiah said it this way: "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?"
Our hearts (ie. our desires, passions, etc.) are important. And they are useful. We should absolutely pay attention to them. But they should not drive the bus of our decisions.
Join us Sunday mornings in the Byrd Theatre at 10:00 AM for the month of February as we discuss the lies we are told in our culture and draw from timeless truths to challenge those lies.
It's okay to have strong convictions and abandon them for a night.
This is a direct quote from an OK Cupid advertisement. The idea behind the ad is to encourage our hook-up culture and lower the public's resistance to one-night stands.
There are a few problems with this idea:
#1) "It is okay..." The obvious question here should be, "who says it's okay?" Presumably, the ad writer says it is okay to do this, but what authority does that ad writer have over your life? Who decides what is okay? Pay close attention to who you allow to speak into your life, especially about your convictions.
#2) "...to have strong convictions and abandon them for the night". The definition of strong convictions is that you don't abandon on a whim.
This kind of thinking can lead to some short-term fun - the kind that comes with long-term pain and regret. We've all made mistakes. We've all done things we regret. But this statement deliberately pushes you to decide ahead of time to make bad choices.
There is a better way to live that leads to less pain and regret.
Join us Sunday mornings in the Byrd Theatre at 10 AM in February as we discuss the lies culture tells and draw from timeless truths to challenge those lies.
WE’VE GOT THE WHOLE WORLD IN OUR HANDS.
There was an old Christian children's song that went, "He's got the whole world in His hands." Nowadays, it seems the lyrics have been changed away from God and towards humanity. We've got the world in our hands.
This idea is meant to be empowering and inspirational. Ultimately, though, it is anxiety-inducing. Does the world rise and fall with all of our decisions? Do we actually have the power to fix everything? Are we really our own little gods?
A pandemic opened our eyes to the fact that we have much less control over the world than we think we do. It doesn't take much to disrupt education, business, families, healthcare, etc. Perhaps a healthier, more robust view of the world would not put all the pressure on ourselves to be responsible for everything that happens on the planet.
Join us Sunday mornings in the Byrd Theatre at 10 AM for the month of February as we discuss the lies we are told in our culture and draw from timeless truths to challenge those lies.
FIND YOUR OWN TRUTH.
There has been a big shift in language over the last few decades. We used to talk about "seeking the truth" or "finding the truth," as if truth existed outside of us. The point was to discover it and align our lives with it.
However, in the last few decades in our culture, the language has shifted and we talk more often about "my truth," or "find your own truth." We have taken the concept of truth and made it something that is mostly a personal choice.
There are certainly some strengths to that approach. Truth is not particularly useful to you unless you own it personally in some way. And saying "your truth" and "my truth" can be an easy way to avoid conflict with those who have different views than us.
But, somewhere, this idea breaks down. Many things are true whether you believe in them or not. Gravity is true. The War of 1812 is true.
If words like "truth" are going to be useful in conversations, then we have to agree on what those words mean. Does truth exist no matter what you believe? Or is it only something you have to personally find and own?
Join us Sunday mornings in the Byrd Theatre at 10 AM for the month of February as we discuss the lies we are told in our culture and draw from timeless truths to challenge those lies.
Make yourself in your own image.
This idea comes from an ad for Instagram reels. The full advertisement says, "Make yourself in your own image. Explore who you can be with Instagram reels."
What does it mean to "make yourself in your own image"? This idea presupposes that you have a solid conception of who you are, and that idea is something you formed on your own.
But is that true? All of us come from somewhere: A country, a culture, a family. All of us enter the world as a part of a group or tribe. So our identity, in many ways, already comes baked in. It is not something we choose, like a favorite brand of potato chips.
What if we have already been made in Someone else's image? What if we aren't wholly autonomous creatures? Then, maybe, we might start to feel liberated.
Join us Sunday mornings in the Byrd Theatre at 10 AM for the month of February as we discuss the lies we are told in our culture and draw from timeless truths to challenge those lies.
Career success will make you happy.
One lie we have all heard is that if we go to college and get a good job, then we will be fulfilled. That lie works really well to put us on the college-to-workforce pipeline. But many people have gone down that road and discovered that even when work goes well, they do a good job, and they are paid well for their work, they are still unfulfilled.
Work is good. Work is important (for both society and our well-being). But work was never meant to fulfill us. Many people are seeing through this lie and are seeing it at a younger and younger age.
Join us Sunday mornings in the Byrd Theatre at 10 AM for the month of February as we discuss the lies we are told in our culture and draw from timeless truths to challenge those lies.
Rich and successful people are more worthy of love.
This is a lie that most people don't ever say out loud and would not say that they believe, but they often act like they believe. The entire structure of our society is geared towards people becoming successful and wealthy. The unspoken message that goes along with that is that if you don't make good money and achieve a level of career success, you are somehow a lesser valuable person.
In our survival-of-the-fittest, dog-eat-dog sort of world, how can we argue against this? Is it true that "all men are created EQUAL and are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights? Or are those just pretty words that we don't really believe? The Bible teaches that people have inherent dignity and value, not because of how much is in their wallet or how far up the corporate ladder they have climbed.
Join us Sunday mornings in the Byrd Theatre at 10 AM for the month of February as we discuss the lies we are told in our culture and draw from timeless truths to challenge those lies.
I can make myself happy.
If you ask most parents these days what they want for their children, they probably won't say they want their children to marry well, get a good education, or have a certain career. Most parents will say, "I want my kids to be happy." And from there, we set up these expectations that we all have that when we grow up, the most important thing we can do - the ultimate goal of life - is to be happy.
So, we look to others to make us happy. A boyfriend or girlfriend. A spouse. A best friend. And eventually, we see the limitations of that. People will always, ultimately, disappoint us. So, we take this quest inward and conclude that happiness is achievable and sustainable and depends almost entirely on ourselves. We are the ones who can make ourselves happy.
Can we be honest about that idea? It is a LOT of pressure. And it isn't consistent or sustainable. What happens when we eat bad food? What happens when we don't get enough sleep? We are fickle creatures, and taking something as elusive and fleeting as happiness and putting the pressure on us to make it happen for ourselves leads to a lot of anxiety.
Join us Sunday mornings in the Byrd Theatre at 10 AM for the month of February as we discuss the lies we are told in our culture and draw from timeless truths to challenge those lies.
Life is an individual journey.
Back in the 1980s, they did some research on monkeys, and they discovered that we have something in our brains called "mirror neurons". These neurons fire off whenever we see emotions in other people. So, if you see someone cry, you know they are crying, not just because you can observe their tears, but because the crying neurons would fire off in your brain. When you see it in others, it is as if you are crying too (even if you aren't literally crying with them).
This should tell us something: We absolutely need each other. We are not "solo sapiens". We are created to learn from and develop with each other. We are created to be in a community.
I know there are loads of Disney films that might say otherwise - Where the hero or heroine has to face the dragon alone. That feels noble. But in the real world, that doesn't work. We are more X-men than we are Superman. We function better in teams, tribes, and families.
Join us Sunday mornings in the Byrd Theatre at 10 AM for the month of February as we discuss the lies we are told in our culture and draw from timeless truths to challenge those lies.
You are who you say you are.
This statement is prevalent in our culture, and it shows up in many ways. We say, "You do you!" or we might sing the lyrics from Into the Woods, saying, "You decide what's right. You decide what's good".
We believe that we all have the final word on who we are. And in some ways, that makes a lot of sense. No one else knows what life is like inside your head. So maybe you are the best person in the world to speak to your own identity.
And yet... you did not create you. You were born into a family. And that family, in some ways, knows you better than you know yourself. They remember how you were ever since you were born. Or perhaps you have a long-time friend who helps you see through the lies, and they call you to the carpet when you aren't being honest, even with yourself. Can those people speak into who you are? Do they have anything worthwhile to contribute to your sense of self?
Join us Sunday mornings in the Byrd Theatre at 10 AM for the month of February as we discuss the lies we are told in our culture and draw from timeless truths to challenge those lies.