Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: FLEXIBLE (07/09/20)
-
TITLE: Twisting Truth | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jack Taylor
07/16/20 -
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES
Round pupils fixated on the gentle appendage stroking the beautiful and succulent temptation as the self-proclaimed ‘king’ adjusted his scaley exterior to refract the light into a rainbow of brilliance.
The pioneer noticed the wonder of amber, jade, amethyst, ruby, emerald, opal, and sapphire, mesmerizing as a necklace, drawing her in close.
Eye to eye they examined the hanging marvel, polished for maximum joy. “Ssssuperior, isssn’t it?”
The innocent one nodded.
“How does it compare to everything elssse you’ve tried?”
“Don’t know. I haven’t tried it.”
“Did the guardian really ssset a ressstriction on you so that you can’t enjoy any of these delicasssies?”
“Not at all. Every other option is completely fine. Just not this one. Hands off.”
There’s nothing so flexible as a truth repositioned. The subtlety as imperceptible as the rising hood of a cobra when you’re not aware.
Whether it was Adam or Eve who first added the extra nuance is uncertain. “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
“You must not touch it!” Where did that come from? Was it from the desire of an overprotective husband setting boundaries to guard the joy of his heart? Was it from the desire of a woman first setting limits on the very thing that drew her to try a little before restarting that diet plan?
Oh, the flexible little partial truths we tell ourselves – and others who watch.
“Is that really the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God?”
“Well, now that you put it that way.”
“SSSurely the Creator of all that is beautiful is not so inflexible as to deny his favoured ones access to the wonder of all that he enjoys. Would he truly withhold something so marvelous from you? Something so simple, so inviting, so sweet.”
“It is all that you say, all right.”
It is that first tiny twist of the iron straight truth – as inflexible as the one who proclaimed it. That twist breaks the core and turns iron to jelly.
“He did make you to be like him, didn’t he? Imaged ones, carrying his design and desire? Living out his mind, emotions and will? Surely he gave you these to use so that you could be even more like him?”
The vowels and consonants snake together into hissing rationalizations, excuses, partial truths and deliberations. And while the mind is busy distracting our head with fantasy and fallacy, our hand and heart reach out.
“One second longer on that image, it’ll be over soon. One more lick – how many calories can it be? Just a little bit faster, a little bit more. What harm could it do?”
We buttress our determination for truth with scaffolding of rules, rituals, rites and reasonings. “This time I really mean it.” We imagine a gothic cathedral glorifying to God erected on the seasoned verbiage from our tongues and we scratch around in rat infested scrap huts wondering where it all went wrong.
“Ah, the Word – Thy word is Truth!” We hold it up as a shield instead of brandishing it as a weapon to cut off every falsehood. In our busyness, building our little kingdoms, we let doubts, skepticism, questions, cloud the light of truth from what has been given. We cut and paste and manipulate verse and vision into an unrecognizable mess and wonder why the unchurched walk away.
“You will not ccccertainly die… for God knows that when you eat….”
“Does he really? Does the God I don’t see visibly here really know more than the visible reality I think I see in front of me? Can I trust him to really guide me into all truth if I just sit here and wait until I know for sure?”
Then the headcrusher steps out. One who is inflexible truth. One who stooped to heal, to suffer and to die so we didn’t have to hide our naked souls behind those flexible half-truths.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
Accept Jesus as Your Lord and Savior Right Now - CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
Thank you.
Blessings~