As I said in my New Year's Revolution, I am resolved to see only beauty from now on. But I realize that if I can truly revolve around my center (God) then other things will also come to pass. One thing that is becoming more true for me as time passes is that I care less and less what other people think. I know this sounds like arrogance to some people, but the truth is that if I stay true to my center, it really doesn't matter what others think. If I am standing on truth, I stand with God. Who cares about anything else?
That can end up being a lonely place to take a stand. I know; I once lost consecutive jobs for being first, too liberal, and then too conservative. My views did not change between jobs. I think I was right in both situations. Someone once said that if people are taking pot shots at you from both the left and the right, you are probably in about the right place. Jesus found himself there most of the time. The conservatives and the liberals of his day were out to get him. In fact, it was a coalition from right and left that finally put him on the Cross.
Again, arrogance echoes throughout the last paragraph. It would be arrogant, except that I am not claiming to be perfect (as Jesus was) but only that I endeavor to stand for what is true. I realize that "truth" is a slippery commodity these days. But it was no less so in Jesus' day. When he claimed to be standing for truth in front of Pilate, the governor asked, "What is truth?" Truth, as an abstract concept, was the holy Grail for philosophers centuries before Christ made his claim. Socrates held truth as the highest virtue, and he sought it for his entire life. Only the post-moderns of today question its existence, let alone its value. But as I said before, I don't really care what the post-moderns think. I stand for truth.
Despite the continued danger of apparent arrogance, I will attempt to answer Pilate's question, to offer a definition of truth as I understand it. First, truth is that which comports with reality. If I say the grass is blue and the sky is green, everyone will recognize the statement is not true; it does not match reality as we know it. If I say time heals all wounds, some might disagree, yet the wisdom of the ages suggests that it is eventually true, whether one finds it true in the present or not. A degree of faith in what is true enters the picture. So does a need to define reality.
The person still suffering hurt experiences a "reality" in which the healing of time is not yet realized. This does not make the truth less true, it just makes a broader definition of reality necessary. So I define reality as the state of all things as described or required by the Word of God. Hence reality is a created universe, a sovereign Creator and a derivative human race. If I want to judge the truth of anything, from molecular biology to astrophysics to interpersonal relationships, I go to the one source of truth in the universe: Scripture. This is not to say truth cannot be discovered in nature or mathematics or the sandbox, but it must be validated by its relationship to revealed truth.
So it is that in the last four years, I have taken about 180 shots at the truth here. I will continue to make the effort, even though some think it arrogant or egotistical. I would say I am doing this with all humility, but to say so would make the statement a lie. So, I will simply say again, I care very little anymore about what other people think. Paul warned against comparing ourselves with others. We should not seek to measure ourselves against anything but Christ. In that comparison, we all fall way, way short, yet with Paul, by grace, we press on toward the goal.
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