What is truth?
This question has been turning over and over in my head for several months now.
I keep begging God to let me opt out of current events but I don’t think I’ve gotten permission yet.
But with all the information screaming in my face, how am I to know what to believe?
One news channel spins it this way, another article spins it that way. This friend says it’s like this, another family member says it’s like that. And while Facebook has slightly calmed down since the election, there is still plenty of dissention and accusations flying in both directions.
A friend shared some controversial news with me the week before the election, about some truth coming out. I said, “Okay, that would be good, if it’s real. I need at least two other sources to confirm.”
I googled the hell out of that topic and found a couple other articles sharing the same information, but after reading them carefully, they were only quoting the original article.
The story never broke. I don’t know if it was intentionally buried by political corruption or if it just wasn’t true. And there’s no way to ever really know anymore.
Paid ‘protesters.’ False legal accusations. Staged riots. Staying up to date on current events isn’t as easy as it used to be. Well, honestly, I have never TRIED to stay up to date before recently, so I don’t know if that’s true either. Maybe it’s always been this messy.
But the journalist in me still yearns for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And other than scheduling my own interviews with high-ranking political officials, I have no idea how to get it. And even then, people can just lie.
I would love to be back in my college journalism classes these days. I want to hear what my professors have to say about all this.
We got assignments marked down if they detected any hint of spin or editorializing. They were purists and they were trying to raise more.
One of my favorite assignments was straight up investigative journalism. We were divided into pairs and each team was given a campus faculty member to investigate. We weren’t allowed to talk to them, but we were to gather all the information we could about that person.
And this was pre-Google, by the way. So my partner and I headed down to the Jefferson County Courthouse to see what all we could find on public record. Turns out A LOT. So much information, details, specifics, numbers, addresses, photos of houses. All available to the public, if they wanted it.
Our grade came after our collection of data was presented to our subject and they signed off on our research. The guy assigned to my team (who just happened to be one of my favorite professors in the English department) had been a willing participant in these assignments before and was very impressed with our stack of intel.
I remember falling asleep one night last week with my brain just in turmoil about what to believe, and waking up in the same state.
What is truth? What is truth?
Suddenly I recognized my question from a certain Jesus encounter in the Bible.
Jesus has been arrested on false charges and is standing before Pontius Pilate, a Roman official charged with keeping the peace in Jerusalem. The Jews had arrested Jesus and the facts were so unclear and emotionally charged, the case got passed around to several leaders before it finally landed on Pilate’s lap. And he was not happy.
So he starts interrogating Jesus, thinks He’s a little weird, possibly delusional but considers Him harmless. The situation is dripping with half-truths and political agenda, and Pilate knew it. You can’t con a con.
Finally Jesus references testifying to the truth.
Pilate demands, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). It was a rhetorical question. Pretty sure he didn’t really want or expect an answer. How ironic that the ultimate Truth was standing right in front of him. He could not see it.
John. The book of John is my favorite, right next to Philippians. Those are my two go-to security blankets in the Bible. And I needed some security, some answers, some truth.
So I flipped open to the well-worn pages of John and let my eyes fall on the first verse of the first chapter.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it….
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but his own did not receive Him. Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:1-5, 9-14).
Truth. There was my word.
The churning seas in my brain were quickly stilled and my heart was filled with sudden peace. Yes, there was still truth. I was holding it in my hands.
And as the passage says, it’s not always recognizable. Pilate didn’t see it. Many of the Jews, Jesus’ own people, even some of His own FAMILY didn’t see it. But the truth was there just the same.
I don’t know if the journalist in me will ever be fully satisfied with the ‘truth’ presented by the world today. But I don’t think that means I’m allowed to stop searching.
But on the days when the search ends fruitlessly, there is a place where I can always find it. In fact, I should fill mind with that truth before beginning other searches, for the sake of discernment and wisdom.
Most of us are prisoners of the world’s deceit, longing for the truth to set us free (John 8:32).
But what is truth?
There is just as much truth in the world as there is lies.
Truth in relationships with flawed people who have earned our trust.
Truth in the order of sunrises and tide schedules.
Truth where two or more are gathered in His name.
Truth in the words of scripture, God-breathed and divinely inspired.
So I will spend my days continuing to search for truth. Then I will lie down at night resting in the timeless and eternal truth of God.
And that truth will set me free.
