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My Truth  

I heard something the other day that nearly curled my toes and curdled my milk. Some guy was relating a personal incident that he summarized with the phrase, "that's my truth."

Like a noxious weed, this expression is invading the landscape of American thought. The big deal? Truth and personal experience are both treated as equals. But there's an ocean of difference between the two.

Truth operates independently of experience. Experience is personal, flexible, and open to interpretation. Truth is impersonal, fixed, and not open to interpretation. Truth exists outside of opinion—yours or mine.

For me to claim that water boils at 212 degrees is not “my truth.” It is truth. To say that Sunday follows Saturday is not “my truth.” It is truth.

Experience, on the other hand, is highly personal and driven by taste. One person’s bad experience with Mexican food is another person’s culinary delight.

When we elevate experience to the level of truth, truth is the loser because it is stripped of any objective measurement. But this is exactly what society has done. Unnerved by judgments our culture despises, we have erased our guilt by elevating experience to the realm of truth. That way, any experience can be called good or truthful—particularly those behaviors that were formerly believed to be harmful. At the same time, those old-fashioned souls who believe in old-fashioned truth are dismissed or ignored or ridiculed (they are, after all, old-fashioned).

The journey is hardly surprising. When a society is determined to call evil good and good evil, it has no choice but to redefine truth as experience. This way, the "new truth" can be melted and molded as needed while still wearing that bullet-proof, don't-mess-with-me reputation that real truth still has.

Jesus didn’t say “I am a truth”—meaning one among many.  He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

Language matters—and that’s the truth.

 
What are you Seeking?  

What are you seeking most in life?

What’s the secret driving passion of your soul?

The honest answer is surprisingly easy to gauge. I say real because most believers are wired to give a “Sunday School answer.” That Sunday School answer, of course, would be Jesus: He’s number one in my life, we insist.

But here's a simple test to determine what you are genuinely seeking: it's the first thing you think about every morning and, likely, the last thing you think about at night.

Despite our claims to love Jesus best, many of us primarily seek comfort, power, influence, money, sex, fame, or success.

Psalms 14:2 is something of a wake-up call:

The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.

Catch that? To understand God is to seek God. We can’t say we understand God if we do not seek God. So, I ask again, what—or whom—are you seeking?

What if, for the next seven days, we chose to start each day quoting Scripture before we ever get out of bed? And what if at night, before drifting off to sleep, we decided to make Scripture our last thought? That would be a significant first step.

In the early 1800s, there was a growing sense of mistrust between the United States and Great Britain. Given Canada's relationship with Great Britain, the U.S. decided to build a military fort right up against the Canadian border. But in the middle of construction, a significant misunderstanding came to light. The surveyors had mistakenly positioned our fort on Canadian soil. Once discovered, workers immediately removed any unused materials and chose an alternate location on the American side. Still, the original fort remained and was given the unceremonious name, Fort Blunder.

It's one thing to build a fort upon a misunderstanding. It’s quite another to build a life upon a misunderstanding.

The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand.

Do you understand?

You do if you seek after God.

 

 

 
When God Examines Your Paths  

Dressed in a powder blue paper gown, I sit crinkling on the exam table.  The doctor looks over every inch of my skin for evidence of skin cancer or pre-cancerous growths. Armed with her magnifier, she always finds something (thankfully pre-cancerous, to this point). Nothing escapes her examination!

The reward for all this probing and poking and intimidation? She blasts every problem area with a can of liquid nitrogen. It's an instant burn that throbs, turns red, then oozes, then scabs over. Maybe you’ve had the same (not joyful) experience.

Frankly, there is nothing about this examination that is pleasant. It is embarrassing and painful, and intimidating. But it has to be done. Every six months, in my case.

Whether we like it—or acknowledge it—such examinations have to be done, spiritually, as well. Proverbs 5:21 observes, "For a man's ways are in full view of the Lord, and He examines all his paths."

Thoughts are like paths. They all take us somewhere. Will your chosen paths today take you toward godly places or ungodly places? Toward Jesus or away from Jesus? What paths are you taking?

Today you and I will not take one step, speak one word, think one thought that God will not examine. We will not write one email, make one call, watch one show, surf one site that God will not examine.

As you plop your head on your pillow tonight and the diary of your day is officially closed, what will God see when He examines your paths?

 
You are Beautiful!  

The sticker stood out on that electrical switch box on the scoreboard at the football field. It said simply, "You are beautiful."

My initial reaction was, What a great message! Then the cynic in me said, Wait a minute. Nobody posts anything these days online, let alone on an electrical box, without some kind of agenda. Maybe it's an internet hoax or a British rock band or PR campaign for some new product.

After a brief online search, I arrived at the website, you-are-beautiful.com. There I learned that more than 5 million of these 1.5" x 2" friendly sticker reminders have traveled around the globe. And then I thought, What could be more uplifting than pondering how much God loves us—as we are?

Hear me clearly. As you read this blog, you are beautiful.  Right now.  Right at this instant. But let’s trade in the glittering generalities for some specifics.

Your TV is daily bombarding you with thoughts like you need a better body, better hair, better skin, better teeth, better everything. But David testifies before God for every single one of us in Psalms 139:14, “I will give thanks to You because I am awesomely and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.” Let me spell this out.

 

If you're a girl reading this blog, consider:

You don’t need to lose a single pound.

Or grow an inch taller.

Or have smoother skin.

Or Botox lips.

Or less varicose veins.

Or “better” hair.

 

If you’re a guy reading this blog, consider:

You don’t need to lose a single pound.

Or grow an inch taller.

Or have bigger biceps.

Or chiseled abbs.

Or thicker hair.

Or hair at all!

 

God is thoroughly, totally thrilled with the "you" that He made. Seems to me some folks could use that reminder today.  Maybe you're one of them.

 
Of Toilet Bolts and Troubling Jolts  

There's no way it should have been that difficult. All I was trying to do was replace our broken toilet seat. You remove two screws, pop off the old seat, and install the new one. A five-minute job—ten at the most.

The first bolt came right off. The other—not so much. Rusty! More than rusted, it appeared welded. No amount of torque from my wrench or spray from my WD-40 made it budge.

It was time to get serious. With a power tool, I could slice the bolt off and grind down some of the wing nut. Still no go! Finally, we ended up drilling out the brass screw. By the time we finally "won," the toilet's exterior oozed oil, rusted flakes, and metal powder. And did I mention my face wore the same concoction (you practically hug the toilet bowl to work on it)? It just shouldn't have been that difficult!!

Or should it have?

Charlie “Tremendous Jones” once quipped, “A lot of people are miserable because they expect everything to go right. They’re asking for misery!”

Exactly where do we get the notion that life should be easy? Or comfortable? Without a shred of experience or evidence to support it, we embrace this undying fiction of a smooth life here on earth. Heaven?  Yes! But here and now?  Bible teacher Michael Easley is fond of reminding us that "Life, at best, is a clean bus station."

In John 16:33, Jesus said, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

He didn’t say we might have trouble. He didn’t say there was a possibility of trouble. He said we would have trouble.

Thank God for Jesus—the Overcomer.

He overcame sin.

He overcame death.

He'll overcome anything in your life or mine.

 
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Jon GaugerJon Gauger

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