Where’s the Truth?
Remember the old Wendy’s commercial where the woman looked at the miniscule morsel of meat pressed between the oversized buns and asked “Where’s the beef?” I feel that way about the news these days. Where’s the truth? This week’s blog shares my thoughts on the fog of uncertainty we are currently living in.
In less time than it took to park the car and walk to the overlook, a wall of dense white rose up from the valley floor, obscuring everything from our sight. This wasn’t the filmy, thin kind of fog that merely reduces visibility. This was a sheet of white creeping toward us so thick it looked as if we were paper cutouts silhouetted against a sheet of white paper.
The view from the Waimea Canyon Observatory had been stunning—until the world vanished behind this impenetrable shroud.
Fog like this is disorienting, even when we think we know the way.
Like rain clouds, fog is made up of moisture, but the particles of water it holds are much smaller. If these drops can be joined together, then rain might fall. But in most cases the best we get is just enough drizzle and dampness to keep us longing for more. It moistens the surface enough to give the appearance of refreshment without actually providing enough relief to sustain life.
Navigating through the news and information overload these days seems like trying to maneuver through a dense and dizzying fog of half-truths—those tiny fragments of truth, ripped from their context and misused for the purpose of creating confusion and leading us astray.
The same as rain clouds bring life sustaining water to the earth, truth brings understanding to our troubled hearts. But when the truth is mishandled, the result can leave us in a profound state of confusion, uncertainty, and fear.
It is easy to feel this way while trying to find our way through this overwhelming bombardment of information. It’s almost impossible to know who the real experts are. Suddenly there aren’t just two sides to every argument. There are as many sides as there are people willing to jump in. And in the fray, the truth is pulled apart and used as shrapnel to sustain or defend their argument. The result is mental, emotional, and spiritual fog.
The result is otherwise loving and compassionate people turning on one another without a shred of grace or mercy.
We are living in perhaps the most confusing time ever known. We can debate the wearing of masks and the closure of churches. We can argue over vaccine safety, defunding the police, kneeling, standing, and hydroxychloroquine. But in the end, we are all really just seeking the truth that keeps us safe.
It seems we can find no source of valid and consistent information to give us the answers we need–answers that won’t change on the winds of a new day.
This is no accident. It is a cleverly orchestrated plan by the Father of Lies, Satan himself, who knows if he can’t change the truth, he can break into tiny pieces and stir it into a concoction intended to disorient and blind us to our own destruction. Satan knows the truth, and he knows how to twist it just enough to mislead us.
Unless we apply the Son-light.
When the sun rises to shine on the fog that covers the landscape, the fog evaporates, and our ability to see is restored.
The same is true of God’s Word.
When these bits of truth are aligned as God designed them and gave them to us, the truth is the River of Life flowing all around us. But like with particles of moisture, when they are torn apart and misused, these same particles form a cloak of deception, concealing the danger around us.
Perhaps now more than ever, Christians must be on guard against this. We must filter everything we hear through the whole truth, which is nothing more and nothing less than the inspired word of God as contained in the Scriptures.
In the coming days my challenge to you is to take a look at the things that are keeping us spinning in our search for answers. Politics, social divisions, health concerns—there is no shortage of conflicting and contradictory information fogging us into a state of confusion, uncertainty, chaos, and fear.
Turn off the noise of confusion—the news and social media—for an hour or a day or a week.
Then let the Son’s light shine upon your heart and mind through prayer, the reading of Scripture, the fellowship of bible believing friends, and most importantly, quiet time with the Lord. This is where you will find the only truth that will never change. It is a truth not based on election results, the stock market report, or the updated data from the Center for Disease Control.
Clarity will come as the life-giving rain of God’s promises pour into our truth parched souls.
Only then will we know and recognize the ultimate truth that overcomes the troubles of this world.
Thank you for your time in reading what it is my joy to share–the truth that God loves you. Whether or not you feel worthy of His love doesn’t matter. He loves you anyway. He has blessed me with this opportunity to write these words to you to tell you that you are worthy of a mountaintop experience!
In an effort to share this truth with as many people as possible, I encourage you to share this blog (and every blog) with others in what ever way works for you (email, social media, word of mouth).
To thank you for your help with this, I want to share with you something I recently fell in love with– The Chosen, Season 1. Everyone who subscribes to my email between now and Sept 11, 2020 will automatically be entered in a drawing (US residents only) to receive the DVD of season 1. If you’re already a subscriber, then refer a friend who subscribes and receive 2 entries! (Just be sure you or your friend let me know you referred them.)
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