On my Advent journey I continue to balance myself and try not to get myself too overloaded with the news of the world. It can be so depressing. I sit most mornings and watch the Today Show and wonder: what happened to the truth?
I know it’s been a downhill slide but it’s really gotten worse the past few years. I try to be an educated person and know what is going on in our country and our world. My biggest scare is what is happening to the truth. How can I believe anything anymore?
So today’s Advent word is truth.
When I think about great people from Jesus to Martin Luther King Jr. I think about how they spoke about truth…
“The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy.” Proverbs 12:22.
” You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” Exodus 20:16.
”Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 14:6.
“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” Mark Twain
”In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” George Orwell
”Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.” Thoreau
”I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.” Martin Luther King Jr.
i was raised to be honest. I have never been able to tell a lie and not feel extremely guilty about it. It will gnaw at me. I just can’t live with myself if I lie. And, I can’t imagine trying to keep track of what I say if it’s not the truth. Twisting stories, saying an untruth in a believeable manner, making stuff up. How tiring. How impossible to keep it all straight. It’s a circling hole.
It is freeing to live in the truth. Don’t get me wrong… Telling the truth is not always easy (and yes there are times when staying quiet is probably easier), but in the long run it is always the best thing to do.
So… what has happened in our world? I guess I’m talking about our politics. Wait – Not just politics. It’s about telling the truth, and finding the truth within our leadership. It scares me because our president is a habitual liar and gets away with it all the time. He says whatever he wants and people believe him. Even when others call him out there are still those who think he is being honest. The media gets caught up in it. They tell ‘real news’ but with an angle (is that a lie?) But, still, I truly believe they are not ‘fake news’ as our president loves to say to disqualify them and to push his followers away from the truth. Our president has done it enough to make it work. Sometimes I think how can he be so devious? If only he used the time that he uses to lie to do good things?
Question: do you believe that teaching children about honesty is really important? Do you see how confusing this world is to them? They see how liars get away with it. They see adults dividing over lies. How sad to this next generation. How scary to us all that this is the future.
So, I get pretty worried about where we go from here. How do we get back to finding honesty – and calling it undeniably the truth?
As I prepare for Advent, I think about how some people don’t believe that God is real. Even though God gave us Jesus to be ‘the truth’ and the way and the light. People do not believe. Christians DO though – and they celebrate the baby Jesus’s birth on Christmas Day. Jesus told the truth. He knew the truth. He WAS the truth.
We can’t ever lose sight that truth exists.
Marla’s Musings 