Does truth matter to you?
It’s a simple enough question but notice I’m not asking if your truth matters to you. Obviously, “your truth” matters to you, but here I’m talking about objective truth. The truth of reality.
It’s not a philosophical abstraction, either.
We live in a culture that has embraced relative truth. That is, “it’s true for me, but not for you”. What kind of ridiculous nonsense is that?
When I go to the doctor and he orders a blood test or a biopsy for me, I need to know the facts about the test results. Do I have a disease or not? Do I have cancer or not? And so on.
It does me no good to be accurately diagnosed with prostate cancer and I decide it’s not true for me. Instead, deceiving myself into believing I’m cancer-free.
(By the way, I don’t have prostate cancer as far as I know).
The point is, objective reality and my feelings, my preferences are in conflict. And all my efforts to force objective reality to change to accord with my feelings is a complete and utter waste of time.
I must deal with objective reality for what it is … the truth.
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In that setting, my feelings are irrelevant. They are real and heart-felt but dealing with objective reality – the truth – is not optional.
That is, I may be emotionally devastated by the news of a cancer diagnosis, but denial doesn’t treat it or cure it.
I need to deal with the emotional side of it as well as the objective reality.
I could go on, but I think the point is clear enough.
But why mention it? Why discuss it?
Because truth really does matter.
For example, when does life begin? At conception, several weeks into pregnancy, or after birth? The answer to that is crucial to the abortion question.
Feelings on the issue are all over the board, up to and including acting out in verbal or physical violence. But the truth hasn’t changed.
For the record, I believe life begins at conception, and I think the evidence bears that out. So, assuming that to be true, then logically, abortion is extinguishing a human life. We can use all kinds of euphemisms to make it appear less than that: “abortion”, “termination of a pregnancy”, “right to choose”, and so on. But the truth hasn’t changed.
If I’m objectively wrong about when life begins, persuade me otherwise.
I’m sorry if that makes you angry, or maybe even hate me.
Unfortunately, we live in a time when our emotions, feelings, and preferences – for whatever reason – are the overwhelming driving force for decisions and personal interactions.
I once engaged someone on Facebook about the issue of partial birth abortion. I drew on some readily available medical textbooks online, referenced them in my discussion, and described what happens in a partial birth abortion. You know – the objective truth of the matter.
The person I was conversing with online was horrified – she had no idea. I invited her to check out the resources I referenced and then someone else chimed in from out of the blue: “I wish you were aborted at birth”.
Whoever it was hated me for exposing the truth. Hated the messenger because the truth of the message was hated.
Again, feelings and emotions override truth.
And we see it every day all around us, don’t we? … impatience, road rage, lack of self-control, slander, flipping people off, shootings, demanding those with whom we disagree to just “shut the ____ up”, and so on.
I could go on and on and make this into a lengthy rant, but that’s not my point here. There’s time ahead to tackle individual issues like abortion, politics, the war in the Middle East, health issues, etc.
My point here is to simply address the issue of truth itself.
We also need to appreciate the fact that the opposite of the truth is not just error. No, the real enemy of the truth is the lie.
Unfortunately, Satan knows that, and he’s very crafty in getting us to buy into narratives which are fundamentally based on a lie, maybe seasoned with a few truth bites along the way just to continually whet our appetites.
Which is why, as a Christian, recognizing the reality of truth is of utmost importance. It should be to all of us, really, because truth matters and the truth sets us free.
We also can’t escape the fact that truth and love go hand in hand, no matter how much we may want to separate them. Among other things, love means rejoicing with the truth and not delighting in evil (1 Corinthians 13:6). Despising the truth and loving one another are therefore mutually exclusive.
And so, we need to be wary, prayerful, and seek wisdom – and to appreciate our very real tendency to prioritize feelings over truth.
May God help us truly love one another – and ourselves – by being patient, kind, gentle, faithful, etc., (1 Corinthians 13) but especially by not buying into the lies that bombard us. By deliberately seeking truth wherever it may be found.
Because truth really does matter … and the truth is what sets us free.
