What is Truth?

My post yesterday mentioned believing what is true, and holding firmly to that in the storm. So with that in mind, combined with a movie I watched last week (the name of which I cannot remember....which actually goes along with the basis of the movie. I am notoriously bad at remembering names of actors, movie titles, and even plots), I decided to dig into the topic of "truth" today.

The movie I am referring to had a murder mystery plot, but the purpose of the film was to point out that our memories, as well as the things we see or hear (or think we saw or heard) can never be proven or trusted. Our memories, feelings and thoughts betray us. The main character actually started to believe he had committed the murder, and was having flashbacks of doing it. Turns out the death was just an accident and the movie ends without more explanation. The movie concluded that because we can never be sure that we know or remember things accurately, then there is no real truth.

Now this idea isn't new. I mean it is "new" in the last hundred years, but not new in today's culture. We hear terms like "your truth" or "my truth" suggesting that each person decides what is true, but that contradicts the very definition of truth. Instead, that redefines the word. The 1828 Webster's Dictionary uses words like "fact" "reality" and "correctness" to define the word truth. It goes on to quote Scripture verses about God's Word being truth. The latest Merriam-Webster Dictionary includes terms like "an idea accepted as true" or "sincerity" which is vastly different than fact. We can be sincere in our beliefs, or accept an idea and true, and still be wrong. Sincerely wrong. Believing something doesn't make it true.

Perhaps part of the problem is our own insecurity. Can you imagine thinking that everyone else somehow has the answers, and you don't? Have you ever felt like you walked into a room where everyone else knows the agenda, and you somehow missed the memo? I know I have! We like the sound of having "our truth" and "your truth" to some degree because we can feel better about ourselves. No one can question what we believe if truth is individual. We never have to feel stupid or uneducated.

Pride plays a role here too. We feel comfortable in letting people live their lives the way they want (even if we aren't comfortable with it). Who are we to judge? If each person sets their own truth, then we are always right, even if we all disagree, and who doesn't love to be right? We also never have to take someone else's opinion of our life choices to heart. No guilt or worry, because we can both be right.

All of this also plays in to our need to feel loved and accepted. We don't want to be seen as a prude or a bigot. We want others to like us, and don't want to confront their beliefs. We can easily start to believe truth is relative, because it is hard to stand against the rushing tide. To be the lone voice holding fast in a swift current is difficult at best. As a nation many years ago it was the minority of voices pushing the boundaries. As those voices grew louder, we turned away, not dealing with the hardship. We slow give in to the changing tide, instead of dissenting. That is not to say that no one held firmly to truth and stood up to society's changes, but the majority started to buy into it. Somehow during this rise of postmodern thought, we agreed to accept that truth is relative, which lets us off the hook of answering the tough questions about right and wrong, truth and falsity.

None of us can trust our feelings, thoughts or memories, which is exactly why we need that compass of truth to keep our ships heading due north, or we will stray off course. I won't get political here, but I think we can see the country has shifted sharply in the last 100 years. Things once thought to be vulgar or taboo, are streaming constantly on TVs and social media feeds. The meanings of words have changed and morphed. Truth is harder to discern. We are a nation sharply divided. One whose compass has broken, and we have indeed drifted far off course. Although we are okay with the idea of no "absolute truth", I think that the constant stream of heated, divisive conversations on social media prove otherwise. We really like the idea of not being wrong, and we really want what we believe to be the real truth. I think this is the root of all the hate speech I read when two sides of any issue try to talk. They think yelling their beliefs louder will result in it being true. We are fine when "your truth" doesn't impact our lives, at which point we want "our truth" to be the rule.

One thing I do agree with from the movie is that our feelings and thoughts can't be trusted. The truth is that our hearts do deceive us (Jeremiah 17:9). How do I know that this is true? God's Word says so.  My believing God's Word doesn't make it true. His Word is not true because I believe it is, it is true because God IS truth. The definition of truth comes from God. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). His Word is given to us as our compass. It leads us to true magnetic north and keeps us on course.

Likewise, if you don't believe God's Word is true, it doesn't negate the fact that it is indeed true. The question really becomes "if you believed something that wasn't true, would you want to know?" Seriously, are you happy to remain on your current course, with a compass that doesn't actually point north, but merely confirms north is the direction "your truth" tells you it is? Many times the truth is hard to hear, even harder to believe, especially when it challenges our choices and worldview, but choosing to just ignore it is a recipe for disaster. My prayer for all of us is to be teachable, truly wanting to know any area of our lives where we believe wrongly about something. Check your compass today, and make absolutely sure that it is pointing you true north, to the One who is The Truth.

Until Next Time~
Shari