I CAN Handle the Truth!

There is so much deceit in this world that I'm surprised we talk to each other at all. It's true that almost everyone wants their child to be honest and most of us teach them that lying and deceit are wrong. So, how did there get to be so much dishonesty? That story is as long as the history of man.

Oh, there's a lot of truth flying around out there. The problem is that some truth is in direct opposition to another truth. And, many times, the purveyors of these opposing "truths" are convinced their version is correct. I discovered this when, as a police officer, I would interview people involved in various incidents. It seemed that, even if they were involved in the same incident, no one told the same story. Even innocent victims and witnesses withheld information that might have made them look bad in some way, or that would lessen the severity of what someone did to them. Whenever we would interview parties involved in a domestic dispute, each would leave out anything they did to incite the other. Because it was nearly always this way, we waited to get both sides of a story before taking any action, except in some emergency situations.

The problem of perspective based truth is evident everywhere. If a student gets a bad grade, he or she will generally give a different reason for the grade than the professor. And, it isn't just individuals who do this. Nations have been guilty of the same thing time and again. We call it revisionist history. I'm sure if you check with an Egyptian, for example, his version of history would be different than that of an Israeli. You could insert "American" and "Russian," or any of a number of other sets of enemies.

Public relations firms routinely "spin" the truth in order to avoid embarrassment for the companies or campaigns who employ them. In court, truth matters little when compared to what can be proved. And, if the truth is about to come out, a lawyer will spend much effort discrediting the witness in order to avoid losing a case.

In spite of all the differences in what we believe truth is, there is still only one truth. Jesus said, "...you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32, NIV 1984). He then told us what that truth is when he said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6, NIV 1984). As I've said previously (see "Freedom from Being Offended", October 03, 2011), I aim to speak the truth whether you like it or not and I'm not going to apologize for it. Otherwise, why would you believe anything I say?