The Truth is Out There

​The other week we finished our youth study group looking at questions they’d submitted. I call it “The Question Bowl” (I think it’s a clever name!) and youth can ask questions about God, the Bible or their faith journey. I’m amazed at the depth and sincerity of the ones I get.  One point I continued to emphasize whether it was how the Bible was translated or questions on women in leadership was the issue of truth and understanding how that impacts our relationship with God. I guess it’s still on my mind so it got me thinking [always a dangerous thing!!].  I think back to the old series the X-Files [okay, I’m drifting a bit but there is a point] and their handle: ‘the truth is out there’.  Truth used to be something, I think anyway, that was taken for granted because it was known. Society knew what was real, accurate and absolute. A consensus existed. 
 
But today that’s not the case. 
 
Truth now is presented as something that is fluid at best and unknowable at the worst. A common thought now is: how can we know the truth when it’s constructed based on our own reality?  While this may seem like a liberating thought coming out of the age of legalism especially in the church it’s a dangerous recipe for dissatisfaction with life and a lack of peace. With no truth, no absolute reality, how do you measure anything?  Life then becomes a series of unconnected episodes with no point of reference. We end up isolated and alone with little connection or commonality- hardly satisfying. No, truth gives us parameters and understanding allowing us to not only function but thrive. Truth is liberating.
 
The Bible tells us there is truth, A truth, and we can know it.  Jesus said: you will know the truth and the truth will set you free (John 8:32). What truth is He referring to?  That we are slaves to our negative and destructive  natures but through His death, burial and resurrection we have been set free.  We try to do things our way, like rewriting truth, and the result is a tension-filled reality which looks a lot like a child throwing a temper tantrum because they want to do things their own way.  Truth, boundaries, absolutes, free us to live secure in the knowledge of what is and isn’t expected of us.
 
Jesus went further than that, He also said He is THE Truth when he declared He is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6).  This idea builds on the previous statement. He is not just ‘A’ way or truth or life, but ‘THE’ way, an absolute. He is the way to God, life is fulfilled in and through Him and what He has shared with us is the truth.  This is a hard truth to accept since it requires surrender, an accepting of this truth rather than one of our own creation. But as with the truth of the law of gravity, when we accept and don’t fight it, we become grounded.
 
So what does this mean for us?  We cannot make the truth what we’d like it to be; it’s not a construct or something of our making. But it is a choice.  Truth about God, eternity and morality are absolute, they are not relative and they are found in the Bible. It’s not an either/or proposition, it’s a choice. We choose who we’ll follow based on His criteria.
 
What choice have you made?  Do you know the Truth? Have you been set free?  Are you living the life God has created you for?  If not, why not?  Seek after it, the Truth is out there. Accept the free gift of THE Truth and LIVE the freedom to enjoy the life God has planned for you!

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