A few words from C.S. Lewis…

“Surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there are rats in a cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man; it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am. The rats are always there in the cellar, but if you go in shouting and noisily they will have taken cover before you switch on the light.”

A reading like that is good for the soul every so often. It reminds me that the big deal is not how I appear to be; the big deal is how I am. Even if one desires deeply to be genuine and sincere and real, the tendency to gloss over and dress up realities that should not exist runs oh-so-deep in each one of us.

And at moments like that, a good shot of truth stated boldly can be just what the doctor ordered.