Truth and Reality…
My mother had a simple way of teaching me the value of the truth. If she caught me lying, she spanked me. In those days, it was assumed children had enough padding on their bottoms to enable truth
reinforcement. Telling what really happened was important.
Truth was conveyed in simple ways: touch a hot stove and you will get burned (I did, and I was); stick a fork in an electrical socket and you will be shocked (I did, and I was); and slow your horse down before you turn for the barn or he will run away with you (I didn’t, and he did). There was a “cause and effect” quality to the truth.
Some things we just knew: what goes up must come down; the sun rose in the east over the Old Grove and set in the west over the Estate Grove; and we had a full moon every twenty-eight days.
It wasn’t until I took my first Philosophy course in college that I learned defining “truth” was necessary. I read Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and Kant. To me, it seemed like they used a lot of words to explain things we just knew. Along the way, I was introduced to Hegel and Marx, who declared truth was a social construct. In other words, truth was whatever the majority said it was. To my rurally educated mind, that was nonsense. If the majority of people thought a ball fell up, it would still fall down. Truth is not what the majority decides; it is what is real.
In Western culture a popular philosophy has risen claiming truth is what you want it to be. That’s why you hear people saying, “This is my truth.” What they are really saying is, “This is my opinion, or my preferred version of reality.”
There is something appealing about getting to make your own version of reality. It means you get to make your own rules. It means you get to decide right and wrong. This, of course, can have disastrous consequences. You leave your parent’s home, and you decide you get to make the rules. You decide your truth allows you to sleep with as many people as you want, and it will be okay. After all, the sitcoms show you a reality that says people are okay with multiple partners. But -news flash – sitcoms aren’t real. Just because it is on TV (or Social Media), doesn’t mean it is real. You discover there is emotional pain, soul pain. Why? The reality is physical intimacy has soul consequences. That is the truth, validated by the reality of millions of people through centuries of human history.
I remember in High School seeing the play “1984.” George Orwell was warning us of accepting something as true just because it is repeated over and over. Two plus two is never five. Just because CNN or Fox News repeats something, doesn’t mean it is true. Truth is harder to find in our culture these days.
Sometimes the truth works for us; sometimes it works against us. If the truth doesn’t make you uncomfortable at times, it probably isn’t the truth. Maturity is what happens when you accept truth is a reality you cannot move by your own willpower.
Followers of Jesus understand something deeper about truth. Jesus made a bold claim: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Jesus declared ultimate truth is not found in a philosopher’s book or a media report; ultimate truth is found in him. Truth is a person. Jesus is the definer of reality. When you know him, when you experience life with him, your outlook on the world is different. Jesus brings reality into focus.
In John’s gospel, Jesus also says, “And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” There is freedom in knowing reality. You stop fighting to make your own truth. You accept realities of the way things are. You follow Jesus closely so he can lead you in the way of truth.
I’ve noticed that people who keep trying to make their own truth live stressful lives. It takes a lot of energy to manufacture a version of reality. There is a much smaller subset of people who find great peace in life, who let Jesus be their truth. These people have a centeredness, “a peace that passes all understanding.”
Two types of people: stressed creators of their own realities or people who accept Jesus as the truth. Which person are you?
