Thursday, July 31, 2008

Truth

Your word is truth (John 17:17).

People want the truth. We hold trials to find out if an accused person is guilty or innocent. Congress has hearings to find out the truth behind public scandals. News organizations employ fact checkers to make sure that errors do not creep into their reporting. School boards want to be sure that student textbooks are accurate and trustworthy in presenting the truth.

People want the truth. Life is full of important decisions, and we don’t want to rely on faulty or misleading information lest we make a mistake of monumental proportions. But sometimes we want something so badly that we lose sight of the truth. In the 1950s, Joseph McCarthy was on a crusade for truth—but he was so convinced that America was filled with communist sympathizers that his quest for truth turned into a witch-hunt instead. People who want to believe in evolution are willing to overlook any number of scientific findings that don’t support their theory of how life came to be. When called to meet with the principal over disciplinary problems at school, many parents wave aside the facts and angrily respond, "My child would never do that!"

People want the truth, but we don’t always embrace it when it comes along. Some truths are uncomfortable or challenge the way we look at the world around us. When we don’t like the truth, we are tempted to ignore it or reinterpret it in a different light. Because people behave this way, some now believe that truth is an illusion, that what is true for you isn’t necessarily true for me. Of course if truth doesn’t really exist, then trials and congressional hearings and fact checkers are pointless. If there is nothing you can rely upon, then science is an illusion because it is supposed to be founded on scientific truths.

People want the truth. And truth does exist, even though we sometimes disregard it or twist it to suit our fancy. People may lie while under oath, but hiding the truth does not change the truth. People may get their facts wrong or jump to incorrect conclusions, but in spite of that the truth remains waiting to be discovered.

Where can you find the truth, undistorted by human failings? Look in the Bible. Listen to Jesus. Trust in the Son of God who said, everyone on the side of truth listens to me (John 18:37).

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