Sooner or Later

“All things hid­den will be revealed” — to para­phrase Jesus. Sooner or later, every­thing comes to the sur­face. Secrets never last all that long. There in an impulse within us to blurt out what we know. Truth is buoy­ant. It floats to the top. It resists being held under the sur­face. It may take years, decades, or cen­turies, but it will reveal itself sooner or later. Sooner is bet­ter. “The truth will set you free” — another favorite phrase from the Mas­ter. It sets you free of hav­ing to repress, sup­press, and depress.

“There is noth­ing hid­den that will not be exposed” — as Jesus reminded his dis­ci­ples. There is yet a great “tell it all” in the future of human­ity. That truth works to keep us hon­est now and in a pos­i­tive curi­ous antic­i­pa­tion of find­ing out what has been going on all along. Pay­offs even­tu­ally fail. Truth is con­ta­gious. It goes per­son to per­son to bypass pri­vate agen­das. The Inter­net is the world-wide free speech arena (so is the back fence). Yes, there are lies. There is also “the truth and noth­ing but the truth…so help us God.” Dis­cern­ment is the real gift that keeps on giv­ing. God put it deep in our guts. Pay atten­tion to it!

Being kept in the dark per­son­ally or polit­i­cally is always tem­po­rary. You can buy a lit­tle time, but you can­not buy off the Spirit of Truth. Patience is a virtue on this one. Sooner or later every­one finds out. Being duped is always a tem­po­rary expe­ri­ence. Truth sets us free of the exhaust­ing need to cover our tracks. Con­fes­sion is a way of say­ing what God already knows. In the end, no one is fooled. Deity is never tricked. It is one thing to lie to oth­ers and our­selves. It is another thing to be so naïve as to think we can lie to God. Truth is more pow­er­ful than illu­sion, though it may seem a lit­tle slower.

I rest in this prin­ci­ple. I do not have to be a detec­tive nor a mem­ber of a research team. All I have to do is wait. Every­thing will even­tu­ally be exposed. It is a sober­ing thought, and I am sure I will be embar­rassed by what oth­ers learn of me some­day. Then again, the process frees us all to be our­selves. God accepts us in spite of our­selves. Ulti­mate Real­ity can­not be hood­winked. It knows bet­ter. Of all the peo­ple we fool, we fool our­selves most. We might as well beat real­ity to the punch and live hon­estly. Sooner or later, every­one will know. In that know­ing, we will embrace all oth­ers and our­selves — and thank God for the grace of Divine Char­ac­ter that does not deal in lies.