The editors of The Hauerwas Reader introduce the chapter "Self-Deception and Autobiography" using these images about the stories we tell about ourselves and the stories that inform our own life story.
Inadequate stories cannot help but foster self-deception, whereas true stories are those with power adequate to check the endemic tendency toward self-deception. The saving narrative of the Christian gospel trains us to accept the limits of our own abilities to be truthful, and thus it must be a story that is continually discomforting. It is a hard and painful discipline, but it cannot be avoided if Christians wish to live lives free of self-deception.
Within the Good News is also the "bad news" about who we think we are. It is "discomforting" to come to the realization that we all have limits to our ability to be truthful. No matter how well we think we pursue truthfulness, we will shelter ourselves with images of life that are quite self-deceptive so that we can protect our egos and the lives we try so hard to build for ourselves. When we are hearing stories that divide the world, our lives, or the issues of the day, into nothing more than "us verses them," we need to help one another raise up red flags and wave them with gusto. Too often we all are caught up into "inadequate stories" in which there is little truth but much opinion. The story, the narrative, of the gospel never lets us stay at ease and comfortable within our own stories. We are constantly being drawn out. This is especially the case as we continue to be within a community in which we talk and differ and prayerfully stand alongside one another to listen to the presence of the Spirit of Truth among us.
Connection: We all cut corners and alter the image of ourselves and become masters of rationalization even when it is only concerning the minor things of our lives. Today continues to give us the opportunity to seek truthfulness as individuals and as people in community.
Precious Lord, your word of life calls us to be bearers of your love who seek to make for a world in which truth and justice and mercy become the characteristics of our lives. Inspire us and hold us up so that we will see your way of unbounded love. Amen
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