Excuses, Excuses

One of the behaviors that plague your effort in your journey toward authenticity and living in your true self is making excuses.  An excuse about some misstep or bad choice deflects responsibility.  It avoids addressing the issue by giving a reason for your action.  This behavior avoids truth and gives cover to bad behaviors.  I have done many things that were regrettable.  For some, I have made excuses and tried tp justify them.  I have learned that assessing my behavior, accepting responsibility and learning from my actions is a better way.  It helps me overcome whatever issue I have uncovered and kept me honest.  It is important to live in this truth to maintain your authenticity and minimize self-deception.  You need to face yourself squarely to avoid this hiding behind the hollow logic of excuses. 

The true self recognizes its faults.  It reckons with reality.  It learns and grows.  It does not allow room for hiding.  The false self helps you remain in the dark.  It feeds the lies and hides behind the masks of excuses.  The truth will be right ahead of you, and you will sidestep it for your more comfortable explanation It will enable you to be pacified, excused, and avoiding reality.  It is an effective but destructive practice.  It creates another world that you can live in.  It is a place of nonreality that pacifies you and keeps you feeling safe in your own little bubble of non-reality.  It avoids all chances for growth.  These only come with an honest assessment of yourself, at least as honest of an assessment that you can have at that moment. 

A final factor that either increases or decreases your susceptibility to falling for this is the people you are surrounded by.  If you are surrounded by truth-tellers they keep you anchored in reality.  The truth must be spoken in love, but it is still spoken(Eph. 4:15).  Sometimes this is referred to as co-dependence.  Bad company will say what you want to hear or worse accept and believe your excuses.  They will not make you face reality and may even be deluded themselves.  They will derail your quest toward an authentic life as well as discourage any real self-reflection.  False friends encourage the false self.  They themselves are usually living in the false self and you are both pretending for each other.  That is a tragic situation.  It is a life of pretense and illusion.  It is truly tragic.

The choice to take the journey toward life and true self begins with embracing truth at all costs.  Only the bright light of truth can keep you grounded on the foundation of reality.  Excuses only perpetuate the false illusions that you are projecting.  As a believer who trusts the creator, you accept the truth as his words.  You welcome his voice and trust him to guide you.  You expect to hear from him, and it is not an intrusion.