Devotion 8.29.23

“The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie--deliberate, contrived and dishonest--but the myth--persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."

[Commencement Address at Yale University, June 11 1962]

― John F. Kennedy

I recently had the opportunity to visit the JFK Presidential Library and Museum. I was about one when he was elected and was about four when he died. His presidency was marked by moderate successes and some failures, but in terms of impact as a president, he was middle of the pack. Two things impacted his presidency: the television and his death. He was photogenic and fit for television, and he was well-read and could deliver a speech unlike any other since maybe FDR. His death led to the elevation of his reputation to a point of hero status, some of which history has made clear wasn't quite the case, but he still has a certain effect on people based on his charm and wit mixed with his words and actions. I do enjoy reading about him as a person and politician.

JFK was, himself, myth and legend.

This quote is the opening quote of a video of JFK's life before you enter the presidential library and museum. I heard it in JFK's voice, as the entire 20-minute video is narrated by JFK, using snippets of his comments, speeches and interviews. It resonated with me so much that I came out of the video, opened my cell phone and looked it up immediately.

I'm not certain what JFK was getting at with this moment of a speech, but it did take me to what bears lies? Where do they come from? Fear, avoidance, or dread of the deed being uncovered and leading to worse than the lie? "Do I look fat in this?" is never answered by a man with, "Dear, you're chubby and anything you wear reveals that fact."

JFK touches on something deeper. The myth that bears the lie. I think of my own days in the classroom and hearing people say things like, "You can't expect much from these kids, the homes they come from, the income they lack, their family being dysfunctional." That to me is myth. Millions of kids daily show resilience and the only thing that will help them coming away from that is someone planted in their lives who has expectations of excellence.

The myth: they are poor, (race or ethnicity inserted here), or have a broken family, so we can excuse them from (performance, excellence, greatness). The lie: He's never going to amount to much, so why try to get him to learn, understand, perform?

There are hundreds of thousands of other examples, but that is one I'm most familiar with. The truth is found in scripture where we learn early that we thought we were God (myth) in Genesis 3 and fell from grace immediately. God created us in His image and yet we failed to acknowledge He is God and to trust in Him completely.

Yet God has and had then a plan. In 1 John 1 we read:

6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Christ is the truth. We lead our lives praying that we walk in the light, not in the darkness (the myth) and that we do not lie and deceive ourselves or others when we walk in darkness. Trusting in Christ, we pray we walk in His light and that we confess and turn to Him for forgiveness when we fail.