The Truth Fortune Cookie

We eat a lot of Chinese food. For whatever reason, our sleepy little town of Brecksville has two takeout Chinese restaurants. When the owners of our preferred one went on vacation leaving us in a potential lurch, we simply turned to option B which is almost as good. Anyway, I actually read the fortune cookies and I am fascinated (sometimes) by what I read.

At first blush, this seems to be a fantastic combination of words. We all identify with adversity and we understand that adversity leads us to something, but truth?  I could see how adversity could lead us to strength. I could see how adversity could lead us to God? Does the fortune cookie author mean that adversity could lead us to recognize truth? If so, that is a lame one. Kind of like getting pulled over for going over the speed limit and saying I did not know the speed limit. The officer would say that my ignorance does not excuse me.

Truth is one of those words that more and more get relegated to a point of reference in our culture today. But truth is one of those words that stands alone and needs no context. Further, we are responsible for knowing truth. Adversity is irrelevant. Jesus says "If you continue in My word, the you are truly disciples of mine and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free" (John 8:30-31). The truth is the gospel. The trigger is knowing it and believing it.

In fact, the more I think about it, if Jesus were writing a fortune cookie, he would write "Truth is the first path to adversity". Think of those who have placed their lives on the line for the truth of the gospel.  They were convinced the truth was the truth and some people don't like truth. About 100,000 of them die every year for the truth.

Being a Truth Seeker

I received an e-mail from a friend of mine this past week. I knew without even opening the e-mail that it was bogus. It was because the friend of mine had passed away several months ago. It was pretty easy to spot because there was hard, objective truth that I knew that my friend could not have written the e-mail. It was even shocking to see the e-mail because I knew without researching it that it was patently false.

Our culture has become increasingly either ignorant or blatant when it comes to truth. Truth is something that is objective. Opinion is something that is subjective. I am looking out my window at home and seeing a windy, rainy day and can say that the weather stinks. But someone like my wife who loves rainy days like this may disagree and say no it is a great day. That is opinion (even though most may agree with me). Lying on the other hand is objective. If I say it is sunny outside, then that is a lie because it is obviously not sunny (the sun is out there somewhere). So many of us have mixed truth and opinion together. Truth has become optional.

I believe God's word contained in Scripture is truth and if I am a truth seeker, I will seek to know more of the truth. This allows me to also know what is counterfeit, just like my friend's e-mail. Circumstances cannot overcome truth. I had a friend who once justified committing adultery by saying that God had put the woman in his path and he desired her. After all, doesn't desire come from God? He needed a good dope-slap because God cannot violate His objective truth and adultery is clearly a sinful violation of the marriage covenant. Some of us willingly ignore the truth and some of us are just ignorant of it. If we speed 70 miles an hour in a 50 zone and the policeman pulls us over, ignorance of the law will be no excuse.

Being a truth seeker means diligently seeking to know it and then applying it. I have been told that in a bank you are not taught to recognize every variation of counterfeit bills, but to know the real thing so intimately that it is very clear when you see a counterfeit. But if a bank teller still accepts the counterfeit, then he/she has knowledge but does not act on it. Both are necessary to be truth seekers.