l| a time to be silent and a time to speak |l

Ramblings on 28 Sep 05

“Reality is not Truth.” – A friend

The objects and feelings that my sensory nodes pick up tell me that they are real, especially because my body responds to them. For example, my sensory cells send signals to my brain when a needle pierces my flesh, putting my tear glands to work. Pain alerts me that something has gone wrong somewhere, and being able to feel the source of the physical pain allows me to treat the injured area asap. This is real.

Everyday life and challenges seem to have a tendency to put people down. Sometimes, I feel that we live to overcome these challenges everyday, some new while others are overdue. In fact, the word ‘challenge’ is just a euphemism for ‘problem’. Problems come with consequences if they remain unsolved. Unresolved conflicts, debts, unhealed brokenness are, among other things, real pain that we feel.

As real as they are, they are not eternal and they are not true. The problems tell me that they are out of our control and there could be no solutions at all. They may tell us that we have failed and there is no way we can undo our failures like I can delete this line by pressing the ‘Backspace’ button. The undeniable presence of these problems is what we know as reality.

So, what is ‘truth’?
“Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.”
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.” (paraphrased)
Hence the equation (my Primary Maths has improved tremendously these past two weeks): Truth = Jesus = God’s Word

My circumstances tell me that people have failed, terribly sometimes, and there’s no hope for them and no way that they (or I) will change.

The Truth tells me that when we call upon God according to His will, He answers. His will and purpose is for all men to come to a knowledge of Him. That he longs for creation to worship Him; that when I’m anxious, I am to submit my petition and requests to him, with thanksgiving. So how can He ignore my pleas?

My eyes tell me that people around me do not deserve His saving grace.
God’s word tells me that He so loved the whole world that He gave. Who am I to say otherwise?

The real challenge, perhaps, is to submerge ‘Reality’ in the ‘Truth’ and renew our minds with the truth as often as possible. Without the truth, we will be living in the falsehood of reality.