May 2022
It’s not easy to tell the truth. Most of us would rather deny or avoid it. Telling the truth requires bravery and faith. You don’t know how people will react once you do it. There is a risk that certain friends or even family members might leave you once you admit your wrongdoing or error. For these reasons and many more, it is often easier to fudge or manipulate the truth to serve our own ambitions or pride rather than take the risk of exposing who we really are and what we have actually done. Many voices in our world today tell us, “Don’t let truth get in your way as you pursue your own important and fulfilling goals in life. Truth is not that important in the end. Success is what counts.” But, at what price to ourselves and our society do we listen to these modern-day sirens and avoid telling the truth and purposely lie?
When I was growing up in America and going to school in the early 1960s, it seemed like our entire nation knew the story of George Washington cutting down the cherry tree. His father had given little George a new hatchet as a gift and one day he used it to chop and cut down a cherry tree on their farm. When his father confronted him about this incident, George courageously looked at his father and admitted that he had cut down the cherry tree. He said, “Father, I cannot tell a lie. I cut down the tree.” As the story goes, his father warmly embraced him and said, “I would rather have a son who is courageous enough to tell the truth than have a thousand healthy cherry trees.” Teachers and parents at the time used this story and many others like it to encourage children to swallow their pride, as difficult as it might be, and tell the truth. For many years the pursuit of truth was a hallmark virtue of American life.
This past week, I had the privilege of listening to a young man’s fifth step as a part of his twelve-step program with Alcoholics Anonymous. In the fifth step, the person is asked to admit to another person all the regrets, harmful acts, and wrongdoings he has committed in his life, especially when he was abusing substances. As a minister, I am periodically asked to hear people’s confessions. With this young man, I was in awe of his honesty, faith, and forthrightness. In detail, he told me one harrowing story after another of what kinds of temptations, drugs and alcohol are available and being used by young people today. Drugs are so much more powerful and lethal today than ever before.
Tragically, many young people are dying at an alarming rate having ingested something they did not suspect or understand in the throes of their addiction. Alcoholics Anonymous believes that people are only as sick as the secrets they keep to themselves, and that confession is a wonderful remedy for the soul. Confession entails admitting to ourselves and God that we have harmed ourselves and others through our selfish and sinful acts. And, speaking to a trusted person face-to-face is the next step required in achieving invaluable emotional and spiritual health. They are required to turn and embrace the truth no matter how ugly with the love and grace of God and their special community supporting them. In fact, they believe that doing so is a matter of life or death.
Coming to faith in Christ, trusting him with our entire lives, is an invitation to enter the light of truth, leaving the darkness of our past behind. Jesus taught us that we are all sinners in need of forgiveness and grace. However, until we admit our sins to ourselves, God, and others, we remain in the dark and become dangerous to ourselves and others. In this spirit, the Apostle John wrote the following wise words: “This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin…. If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” (1 John 1:5-7, 9)
I am proud to say that the emblem of my alma mater, Yale University, contains the words, “Lux et Veritas” or “Light and Truth.” So many universities in our country, especially the older ones, were founded on the principle that truth exists and is worthy of all our pursuits. Yale and so many other universities still believe that truth is something that can be discovered, embraced, and followed. It is not relative, allusive, or amorphous. The purpose of any education, especially higher education, is to create an environment and provide the necessary tools and resources for a student to pursue and discover truth on their own. And Yale’s emblem says there is a relationship between truth and light. Pursuing truth invites more light into someone’s life. And more light leads you to discover more truth. The founders of Yale had Biblical teachings on their minds when they settled on this time-treasured motto. It has been my prayer that Yale never loses this ultimate focus or goal.
However, the question needs to be asked today, where are we regarding reverence for truth as a society? It seems like yesterday I was on the streets with other demonstrators demanding President Nixon tell the truth about his role in Watergate, or industries tell the truth about whether they were polluting our environment. In the 1960s and ‘70s the pursuit of greater peace and love were dependent on knowing greater truth. Today, the moral climate of our country seems to be changing, and not all of it in a healthy direction. Truth is sadly and suddenly being manipulated by engines of propaganda and political expediency as never before. Leaders of our country today are no longer expected to always tell the truth. If they lie a little or even a lot for political or personal gain, it seems to be okay in certain circumstances. Today, George Washington confessing he cut down a cherry tree seems frivolous and irrelevant to many people. Creating their own power, reality, or “influence,” regardless of the truth involved, is what is most important to them. Egregious lies or conspiracy theories have become fair game. How did we get here and where does it all end? I believe it is high time we begin telling the truth again and holding others to it, or we will be headed for certain peril, personally and societally. In America, truth is the most important cornerstone we have as a people, nation and world. To ignore or abuse truth, is extremely dangerous. It is only a matter of time before our lies and comfort with the darkness catch up with us.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has miscalculated that the West no longer cares about truth. He is betting on the fact that we care more about comfort and non- involvement. Perhaps this terrible war has reawakened us to the importance of truth. May God’s light and grace help us now, leading us to confess our own sins, while giving us a hunger for truth as never before. Putin is boldly lying to his own people that he has not initiated an unprovoked war against Ukraine. He has already lied to the world that he has not killed numerous journalists who disagreed with him, or has poisoned politicians who opposed him, or has children from women other than his former wife. He thinks he can bend truth any way he wants for his own political purposes and personal ambitions. So do many other government leaders in our world today. Tyrants like Putin have been popping up all around the world in recent years because their systems of governance depend on suppressing truth, and they have figured out ways to do it. More open and free societies do the harder, more difficult, and often messy work of respecting and debating what’s true, just, and right for their societies. Tyrants skip those steps and go right to amassing as much power and military might as they can, shaping truth to whatever they want or need at the time.
The Bible invites us to bank our entire lives on the fact that Jesus is the ultimate truth in the world. We are all free, of course, to think otherwise. However, if we put our minds and hearts to studying Scripture and compare it to any other truth claim in the world, we are hard pressed to conclude otherwise. God is our rock. He is not fickle. He does not change or take back his promises. His love is constant and trustworthy. He invites us to build a home with him and live a life of truth, light, and faith where there is no darkness or acceptance of lies, only rest and assurance for our weary souls.
Jesus said to those who were following him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31b-32)
May we who follow Jesus always be free, full of light and truth and standing by His word.
