Facing the Facts: Authority (Part 3)
Have you ever considered that one cannot gain wisdom if unable to admit error or ignorance? It is okay, indeed laudable, if not necessary, to be able to say “I don’t know!” or “I was wrong!” I have a story to tell about what can happen when someone fails, avoids or refuses to do this.
I once knew a fellow who was never wrong! Nor was he able to forgive. In fact, he often bragged about never forgetting any wrong doing, real or perceived, that he had received from anyone. It was impossible to get near him in any kind of relationship as you knew full well that any offence he may have taken from you in the past was still alive and well.
The problem with this fellow was that since he was not able to forgive and forget, he had to store everything in his memory bank, which after several decades was full to overflowing with grievances. In fact, his memory was so full that it became impossible for him to properly recall information in chronological order nor correctly associated with the reality of what had happened.
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Discovering Truth: Authority (Part 2)
“I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me” (John 14:6).
Ten years after I initially asked the question “what is truth?” this verse jumped out at me causing another pivotal moment in my life. I had found the truth! It was not complicated! It was not plural! It was not determined by public opinion or some kind of democratic consensus! It just was and it was Jesus!
While I may have discovered that Jesus was the truth, I remained perplexed. While anyone can claim to know the truth or to be searching for the truth, to claim to be the truth is entirely another matter! I had yet to discover who this Jesus was and how or why He could make such an outrageous claim. This, obviously, demanded further investigation.
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What is Truth? Authority (Part 1)
We are created with a great capacity for learning. To be sure, some are more proactive in this activity than others, but all of us grow in wisdom as we age; again, some more than others.
Throughout this quest for knowledge, we occasionally experience pivotal moments that cause us to make major shifts in our thinking and/or lives. Most of us can clearly remember such a time when something big occurred. We may not have realized how critical this experience was at the time, but looking back, we can see the importance of that moment and how it directed or redirected, indeed changed our lives.
Pivotal moments are profoundly life changing. Some may be “bell ringers” in that your “bell” got “donged” and you suddenly found yourself in another paradigm. Sometimes it is just a small decision or a simple question that reconstructed your world view.
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