They did not want the truth
So silence filled their lives
They embraced the comfort of lies,
And lies wrapped tightly around them
They loved deception,
Until fact and fiction blurred,
A haze they could not escape.
Why this confusion?
Clarity fled from their grasp—
They pushed it away
They hide behind the very trees
They claim do not exist,
Now stumbling blind
They cannot walk a straight line.
Mark B. Jabusch, “Walking the Line,” copyright (c) July 2024.
Truth and deception are ancient enemies. From the Garden of Eden’s first lie to the false comforts of the modern world, humanity has always struggled to see clearly when the heart prefers illusion. Walking the Line reflects the timeless truth that when people reject God’s voice, silence follows, some call it a dis-peace. As the prophet Isaiah warned, “Truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter.” (Isaiah 59:14). The poem’s imagery of blindness, confusion, and self-deception echoes the Bible’s pattern of sin: people hiding from God behind the very things they deny exist. Yet the message is not without hope—it is a call to honesty, repentance, and the rediscovery of divine truth that sets the heart free (John 8:32).
They did not want the truth
“They refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false.” (2 Thessalonians 2:10–11).
Silence filled their lives
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.”
(Amos 8:11-12).
They embraced the comfort of lies
“Everyone deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves committing iniquity.” (Jeremiah 9:5).
Until fact and fiction blurred
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness.” (Isaiah 5:20).
They hide behind the very trees / They claim do not exist
“And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” (Genesis 3:8).