Do you know anything about drafts? Not military drafts, or drafts of a paper. I’m talking the icy cold drafts that sneak into your home through even the tiniest gap. I do. I know more than I’d care to. Stopping drafts was my first major project here at Acorn House. In the midst of stopping up all those drafts, God started speaking to me about lies. In my heart I could feel Him reminding me of how sneaky, joy-sapping and detrimental lies are, and reminding me of how dispelling lies helped me reclaim my life. So today, I’m going to tell you a little about my journey with lies and drafts.
The first truly cold night in Acorn House was awful. In my room, under all the blankets I had in the house I was a block of ice. My face was cold. My nose was running. Yes, running like I was outside. In the hall, I could feel a cold breeze blowing from Gideon’s room. We barely slept that night. The next day I was miserable, but determined to find the source of the drafts and fix the issue.
The problem with drafts is this: they are invisible and unnoticeable until things get uncomfortable.
In our bedrooms I discovered that the windows hadn’t been insulated. Large gaps behind the trim was letting cold air pour in. A breeze was coming in from a gap behind the baseboard. A floor vent cover wasn’t actually covering a vent–just a hole to the icy basement, letting cold air up into the room. Then I found that the dryer vent had no cover on it. There was just an open tube letting cold air into my room.
When I saw the scope of the problem, I was overwhelmed.
The drafts were making us miserable. But there were so many to find and fix–I didn’t know how I’d ever get it all done.
For big drafts I used my hand to feel for air flow. For the sneakier wisps of air coming in, I used a lighter as a guide. I ran the flame along windows, doors and baseboards. The flame would flicker (or in some cases blow out) when I reached the source of a draft. I filled small gaps with caulk. Big gaps needed to be filled with foam gap filler–the kind that expands to fill the gap and kind of looks like yellow ice cream.
One by one I sealed the gaps. The house stayed warmer. It became livable. The problem isn’t totally fixed, it’s an ongoing process.
But I told you I was going to talk about lies. So let me get to the point.
Somewhere in the middle of my third can of gap-filler God laid some thoughts about lies on my heart. I don’t consider myself particularly gullible, but I’ve believed a lot of lies in my life. Big, important lies. The kind that wreak havoc on your mind, heart and spirit.
Whenever I talk to someone about my experience walking through depression and anxiety, I point to identifying and dispelling lies as the thing that brought me the most healing. In fact, I’d say dispelling lies that I had believed saved my life. Lies were the root of my problem. I needed to take measures to seal up my life against the lies I had believed.
In fact, lies are the root of a lot of problems.
Satan is called the “father of lies.” He is a liar and deceiver. The first sin he ever enticed anyone into was telling a lie.
Lies will make our lives uncomfortable.
Maybe not at first. But eventually, our lives will be uncomfortable (maybe even unlivable) as result of the lies we believe.
Lies are often invisible.
We may feel something is wrong. We might be able to sense it. But like drafts, lies are invisible. We cannot simply detect them with our eyes. They come into our minds, hearts and home in the sneakiest ways. Some are obvious (gaps around windows and doors.) Some are harder to see (remember, in some cases I needed to remove window trim and baseboards to find the source of a draft to fix.)
Big, glaring lies are easy to feel while small, tricky tweaks-of-the-truth may need a guide to find their source.
Lies can be overwhelming.
In our fallen world lies are all around us. The more lies we believe, the more confused we get…making us susceptible to believing even more lies. Just like the drafts blowing into my house, sometimes it seems like the air around me is saturated with lies.
Once I began uncovering lies in my own life I became overwhelmed by the amount of lies surrounding me, vying for my belief and attention. Lies, like drafts, can be addressed. Find them and eliminate them one at a time.
Lies can be identified
I love the image of using a lighter to detect a draft. So often the Bible talks about light–the antithesis of the darkness.
Just as a lighter can be used to find the source of a draft, the lights God gives us can help us find lies in our own lives.
- Jesus is the Light of the World–anyone in Him will not remain in darkness. John 12:46 (His Truth will dispel lies and darkness. Come to Him and ask Him to reveal the lies that wreaking havoc in your life.)
- God’s Word is a lamp for our path, Psalm 119:105. (In biblical times a lamp would have had an open flame. God’s truth is a perfect way to detect the source of lies. Hold the lamp of His Word up to your path, this flame will never extinguish, but lies may try to blow it out.)
- Believers are the light, Matthew 5:14-16. (A trusted mentor of friend in the body of Christ can help identify lies and replace them with Truth.)
Lies can be dispelled.
Lies hold no power of their own. Their power lies (no pun intended) in the power we perceive them to have. Once we identify a lie and name it as a lie–its power starts to wane. But the true problem isn’t solved yet. Identifying the source of a draft didn’t make my house any warmer.
A draft needs to be filled or fixed, a lie must be replaced by the truth. If a the void left behind from an identified lie isn’t filled with truth, another lie can easily take its place.
The truth may take a while to believe.
Like I told you, I’ve believed a lot of lies. And I’d love to say that I quickly identified them, found God’s Truth, replaced the lie and lived happily ever after.
Sometimes it really is that easy.
But the lies that do the most damage are often hidden, well engrained, and require some time. These lies are like the big gaps behind my baseboards. First I had to do a little deconstructing to identify them. Next I used gap-filler. Then I had to wait for the filler to expand. In some cases I needed to go back over it a second time. With diligence, eventually the cold air stopped coming in.
Sometimes we need to hear the truth over and over before we believe it. When we feel the lie coming back in, we need to restate the truth, to add another layer.
I got annoyed, when I was in counseling for not changing fast enough. For continuing to fall into the same lies over and over. My counselor assured me things would change. Those thought patterns, believing those lies–that was my normal, natural way of thinking. If we consciously, intentionally speak truth over lies we’ve identified, the Truth will become our new normal, natural thought pattern. Just like the draft problem at the House, fighting lies is (and will be) an ongoing battle.
I don’t know if this is resonating with anyone. I hope so. If you are struggling–please know that you aren’t alone. I’ve been there. I’ve never met anyone who didn’t have a few lies they needed to dispel. You can do it. Don’t be hard on yourself, but do be intentional. Do be diligent. The lies that are causing your life to be cold, uncomfortable and unenjoyable can be replaced with truth. If I can do it, anyone can.
(PS– When I was unearthing lies in my life, this book was given to me by a friend. I cannot recommend it highly enough!)
