Thomas H. Roberts & Associates,
P.C.
Virginia's Civil Rights & Personal Injury Law Firm
(804) 783-2000
Truth Really Matters |
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“Your truth is your truth and mine is mine” sums up my mother-in-law’s religious views and those of many others. It certainly is popular in a culture that demands tolerance of people’s moral and religious views. This notion that truth is defined by our own experience doesn’t really work in the world in which we live. Let’s say I wanted to visit a friend in San Francisco. I’m not quite sure how to get there so I ask a stranger. Which way to San Francisco? Can you imagine getting directions from somebody who believes that San Francisco is on the east coast of the United States? No matter how sincere that person believes that San Francisco is on the east coast of the United States, doesn’t make it so. In everyday circumstances, we understand that truth is not relative and is not defined by a person’s experience. Further being tolerant of this stranger’s belief that San Francisco is on the east coast, would only condone ignorance, error or a lie. More importantly, we would not get good directions to San Francisco. How much better would be a good map! Now let’s imagine that you believed that the temperature is 90 degrees outside, while I believed that it was 30 degrees. Let’s further imagine that we agreed to meet at the front door for a stroll outside. While neither the truth nor the temperature depends upon our beliefs, yet what we believe does make a difference in the way that we live and act. You will show up at the door in hot weather apparel, and I’d show up dressed for cold weather. To this my mother-in-law points out that she has a thermometer outside her kitchen window. By reference to the thermometer, she can form a belief much closer to the truth so that when she meets me at the front door, she will actually be prepared and able to walk comfortably in the reality of the day. So often we walk through life feeling miserable and lost because we have not found, understood or believed truth. Could there be a reference for life so convenient as the thermometer outside my mother-in-law’s window or a good map? The one who made us has given to us such a reference, the Bible.[1] Okay, so we have an accurate map so everything is fine. We’ll not exactly. Have you ever gone on a road trip with a person that just couldn’t read a map? With the Bible as well, we may not read or study it closely, we may not fully understand what we read, take it out of context, or even ignore parts we don’t understand or don’t like. Why should the consequences be much different than the traveler who gets bad directions to San Francisco? Or what of the driver that refuses to believe the directions, even good directions? Or what of the driver that doesn’t hear very well or the one whose memory is faulty. Our perception of the truth is important. It doesn’t change the truth, but our perception is real and will impact our actions. Growing up, I heard the truth of the Bible. I could repeat many of its truths back to you, but deep down, I either did not understand, accept or believe its truths. The consequences were painful. Let’s examine the Bible. There are so many truths to be mined from its pages. Let’s examine a few of the basics.
Okay, so let’s flesh out some of these truths.
Forgiveness What person did not grow up receiving praise for our accomplishments and reproof of some sort for our failures. Even today, we love the accolades of our friends and family for our accomplishments. This experience has a profound impact upon our perception of God and our relationship to him. As parents that perception may be tempered by the love that we have for our children. I grew up relishing the praise. In my finite world, despite the clear contrary Biblical teaching, I vainly attempted to earn God’s praise. I wanted to be perfect. Even today, I find it difficult to apologize – for that would concede that I am not perfect. If I am not perfect, well, I’d like to be close to perfect. If I’m not perfect, I’d like to blame somebody other than myself. It was not really my fault, it was somebody else’s fault or the difficult circumstances facing me, etc. There might even be an element of truth to my justification or rational. We live among people who are fallen. How much more are we inclined to justify ourselves when we are lead into sin by one who bears greater responsibility.[2] Although, I knew the Gospel, it was not until much later in life that I began to understand or to really believe the Gospel. From an early age I was a Christian, having the intellectual understanding that Jesus died for me and a fledgling faith, but might fairly be described as a spiritual idiot savant, having a fairly extensive biblical knowledge but ultimately being spiritually retarded or delayed. In John 3, Jesus was discussing with Nicodemus, a religious leader, spiritual things. He said that to enter the Kingdom of God, a person must have a spiritual awakening or birth – “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” Jesus went on to say that a person is born physically but that a person must have a spiritual birth as well.[3] All Christians are then by definition “born again” that is having a spiritual faith, whether they are familiar with the term or not. The Scriptures teach that this faith is a gift from God.[4] When I came to terms with my own failures, gave up trying to justify myself or even to blame others, (although others were deserving of blame that did not justify my own actions), it was only then that I began to know God’s love in a deep and life-changing way. Similar to John Bunyon’s[5] fictional character, the burden I carried on my back though my childhood was removed and I breathed the fresh air of freedom. Where before, in my own ego centric world, I knew and was weighted down by my own failures and short comings which translated into guilt and low self esteem, I then began to know and experience that real forgiveness removes the guilt and burden and replaces it with a sense of being loved and peace. As my focus moved away from my own failures to the one who reached down to do for me what I was unable to do, low self esteem was replaced by a sense of belonging to God who knew me as I was, gave himself for me, and now had a plan for my life. In Romans, we are told “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”[6] God’s Purpose Once I understood deep in my fiber the love of God as demonstrated by Jesus Christ, other things fell into place. Questions like “Why did God permit this to happen?” although unanswered became less important. The questions were replaced with trust. We may ask "Why?" but that question will probably not be answered. In 1981, a Conservative rabbi, Harold Kushner, facing his son’s awful diagnosis and disease which caused rapid premature aging and early death, asked if the universe was created and is governed by a God who is of a good and loving nature, why is there so much suffering and pain in it. His book was entitled, “When bad things happen to good people.” He answered that God has arranged the universe in such a way that even he cannot solve all of its dilemmas, but that he also, due to his caring nature, suffers along with his creatures, calling into question God's omnipotence, or power. The book was challenged by many including rabbi Yitzchok Kirzner in his book "Making Sense of Suffering: A Jewish Approach". Kirzner wrote “[Kushner] concluded that to maintain his belief in God he must reject either God's benevolence or His omnipotence. He chose the latter course. God, in Kushner's view, created the world and provides the foundation of moral principle. But He cannot quite control the world He created. He hopes for our good and He sympathizes, as it were, with us in our pain, but He is powerless to do anything about it.” Many years ago, a man named Job suffered horribly. The ancient scriptures record a discourse between him and God. And yet no answer was given. Instead, God asked Job, “Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself? Do you have an arm like God’s and can your voice thunder like his?” In the Scriptures, the apostle Paul does not answer the question either, but in keeping with the Scriptures, calls people to trust God. He wrote, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Such a response would seem trite, but Paul writes that you should be able to trust God, because he has done what it takes to earn your trust. He writes explaining the good news, known as the Gospel, that God loves us so much that he gave his own Son to do what we could not do for ourselves, to earn reconciliation with him--to bring peace between a holy God and an un-holy people. He wrote, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”[7] We may not have all the answers, but we can have peace, just as a little child enjoys in the arms of a good parent.[8] In this framework, if it reaches the core of our being and understanding, the world around us takes on a new light. Our esteem comes not from comparing ourselves to our perception of others, but comes from knowing and experiencing God’s deep love for us. When we understand God has a unique plan for our lives, we are less inclined to compete with others and more inclined to search for God’s plan. We look for glimpses of God’s purpose and press now to live as Christ has called us to live—to be all that God intends for us to be. “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”[9] We see others with a similar need to know and experience God’s love.
Counterfeits In life and particularly in my practice, I see so many people who have followed or accepted counterfeits rather than the real deal. Many years ago, a brilliant scientist made the same observation but with understanding and eloquence I shall never attain. In what he considered to be his greatest discovery, scientist and renown mathematician Blaise Pascal, researching the nature of the vacuum, wrote in Pensées,[10] "All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever means they employ, they all tend to this end.... This is the motive of every action of every man.... And yet after such a great number of years, no one without faith has reached the point to which all continually look." Although Pascal is better known for his theory of probabilities, the invention of the first calculating machine and the binomial theorem, his insight into the human condition has a further reach than his breakthrough physical scientific discoveries. People spend their whole lives attempting to fill this God-shaped void.[11] Only heartache, tragedy and emptiness results from attempts to fill it with substitutes for God. Similarly, when we try fill voids intended for God’s blessings, like peace, love or even marriage with counterfeits, we come up short. Psalm 32, one of my favorite passages in Scriptures, was quoted in the New Testament by Paul in Romans 4. King David, described forgiveness as a weight lifted, a covering, a clearing of one’s guilt. One forgiven is truly blessed.
So What Now? So where do I go from here? I press forward to become what God wants me to be. When I stumble, I get up and press on. “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3. It is a humbling thing to realize that God has planned for us to do his will. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2.
[5] In 1678, John Bunyon’s classic Pilgrim’s Progress, was published. He wrote “Christian ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending, and upon that place stood a cross ... So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back.”
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