“The life lie is our guiding fiction — it’s the story we tell ourselves about ourselves. For better or for worse, you are the narrator of your story. If you want to change your life, you have to change your story.”- Mark Batterson
“The world will ask you who you are, and if you don’t know the world will tell you.”- Carl Jung
Mark Batterson continues Chapter 7 of A Million Little Miracles with a concept coined by Alfred Adler. The life lie is:
- a false belief that we build our lives around.
- the excuse we give ourselves to evade responsibility.
- a false belief that turns into a false narrative that turns into a false identity that turns into a false reality.
Above all, Moses serves as a classic case study. Called by God to deliver Israel out of Egypt, Moses revealed one of his life lies. He told God he lacked eloquence. He pled slowness of speech to evade responsibility. But God refused to let Moses off the hook. Instead, God told Moses He would help him speak and teach him what to say.
So, here’s the irony of Moses’ story. In Acts 7:22 we read that Moses received education in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. In addition, Act describes Moses as powerful in speech.
Hence, Pastor Batterson asks:
“What is your life lie? Is there an excuse you’ve been giving God? Giving others? Giving yourself? If you’re looking for an excuse you will always find one.”
Like many of us, Mark notes, Moses found himself more aware of his weaknesses than his strengths. Negativity bias becomes so pervasive that what we think we’re bad at turns out to be something we’re actually good at.
As a result, life lies skew our self-image. They do so by removing the image of God from the equation. And, Mark counsels, if you leave God out of the equation, good luck!
Certainly, Satan loves to play mind games, but he can’t read your mind. And while Satan doesn’t know your future, you certainly know his!
Today’s question: What Scriptures prevent the life lie from assuming the role of your guiding fiction? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Inherent goodness of God’s creation”