day no. 17,298: lovelessness and lies

"Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love." ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Do not lie to yourself, but if you do, do not believe your own lies. Do not lose track of which is which or you will lose your grip on reality, which is to say, you will be loveless.

James 1:22

Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

We have to admit, before we begin, that we can be deceived. We can believe lies, and even worse, we could be the liar. We can end up believing a rumor that we created. In fact, we do it all the time. It is called bitterness. When we want to believe the worst about someone else, we are willing to entertain any accusation, no matter how ludicrous or implausible, as long as it accuses the one we already dislike. We may even invent the evidence. We may even go on to believe the evidence we invented because of malicious bias.

There is a fine line between suicide and homicide. The one who cannot respect himself often finds it difficult to respect others. The one who has a hard time pursuing his self-interests will find it even harder to pursue the interests of others. Those who live by lies often become blind to the truth.