What happened to THE TRUTH being this robust thing that could weather the storm of emotion and reason, tragedy and victory?

Are the days gone when people dig for the truth until they find it? Is it out of fashion? Is it just too hard for today’s young people?

I find it ironic that Reality TV has replaced actual reality with it’s greasy “honesty” and over the top drama. In the same way I think THE truth has been replaced with something that is it’s opposite.

It should be said that I do enjoy extremely low brow reality tv because I can’t believe there are people that hunt gators in a swamp and that I need sub titles to understand their English.

How about Storage Wars where people are obsessed with buying straight up garbage (take out the B and you have “garage sales” which I also hate even if my wife loves them), or shows like the Voice that force me to listen to types of music I’ve already decided I don’t like, which confuses me because I hate changing my ridiculous opinions (ok, not all country is terrible Erin!) because that requires energy.

Heck, I’m just over the decision I made as a child that I hate olives even if I’d never tried them. Now they’re one of my favourite things which is complicated.

But that’s the difference between my opinions and the truth. Only a fool thinks the two are the same all of the time. And only a fool beefs up a silly argument by trying to throw some form of wordy truth at a wall, hoping that some of it sticks and the other person is suitably impressed to throw in the towel, you were still arguing about something stupid in the first place. The truth doesn’t argue about things.

Opinions change, the truth never does. Your opinion of it does. Your understanding of it does. But if your truth changes you’re not really talking about THE TRUTH. It’s not even something one should feel all that emotional about. It just IS. It’s bigger than that.

The truth never grows up or morphs into something different. It can’t mature because it’s the destination at the end of the road and not a stop along the way.

But what happens when society itself stops recognizing this? How terrifying is it to try and create a life around some other thing that changes from day to day based on my experience or desire or (shudder) intelligence?

We’ve become experts at telling ourselves that we’re smart enough to change the truth, so we replace it with something we sometimes call “My Truth” and look for people who agree with us or put up with us because “our truths” align for a time. I think it would be far more accurate to call them Values because this word creates a mental picture that allows for some people to have messed up values…. Meaning the values we subscribe to can be horribly wrong and lead to consequences.

Have we become so proud that we actually think we can rewrite absolute truth or escape its reach? No wonder we’re so insecure, we’re like spoiled children whose fathers were afraid to correct our illogical selfishness because they were afraid we wouldn’t “like them”. Sure, spoiled kids like it for a time but they subconsciously know dad didn’t love them enough to tell them…

The Truth.

I don’t often rant in public but my work load as a pastor would go down immensely if everyone could have my dad for about two weeks.

I love my dad. Sure he wasn’t the most emotional guy but that’s not how God made him, and I came to appreciate it early. One thing he never did was coddle me when I had believed a lie and done something stupid that hurt someone. His attitude was more like “What did you expect would happen? Now go apologize and MEAN IT”

He took a hard view with the truth, he never bought and sold it. He never twisted or changed it. He never took away from it or added to it that I can recall. He knew that if he did, it could no longer be THE TRUTH.

The truth is what it is. If you regret what you said in an argument but try to defend it in any way during your apology you are now lying. You are saying you’re sorry, but in the same situation you’ll do the same thing because you have a reason and your feelings were hurt and the other person…. “Blah blah blah I’m not really sorry” is all that my dad would hear.

“So go back to your room until you can actually apologize boy!”

What a gift that was to me!

He taught me that the truth is hard, that it never changes, and that it is often the shortest sentence.

“I’m sorry that I said ____.”

“I meant it and I’m wrong.”

“Please forgive me.”

“It wasn’t right.”

Short sentences suffocate pride, and one only has so much breath…