Most of us like to think our actions reflect our beliefs. But psychologists have a name for what happens when they don’t: cognitive dissonance. It’s the discomfort we experience when our behavior conflicts with our values.
We human beings have developed some creative ways of dealing with it. Rather than changing our behavior, we often change the story we tell ourselves: we make excuses, minimize the contradiction, or convince ourselves that our circumstances justify an exception.
We’re remarkably good at believing our own explanations. And the more invested we are in seeing ourselves as good people, the harder it becomes to recognize our inconsistencies.
But the way of Jesus calls for radical self-honesty. It means having the courage to recognize where our actions fall short of our convictions, without explaining away the difference. And then, rather than simply knowing better, doing something about it.
