What is Truth?

The interview process always brings up a whole different world of experiences only encountered every few years when it's necessary to find work or some other random reason. What kind of question is 'what are your strengths and weaknesses'? How am I really to respond to this? Especially when you work for a church, it seems like you should be good at limitlessly expounding upon your sins and not able to talk about what your good qualities are... that's humility right? But then that's a whole different blog for another time.

On to more unusual and difficult questions. One of today's grillers, I mean interviewers (actually they were all very nice and welcoming!), asked me what would I do if someone asked me what is truth?

I had one of those Holy Spirit moments, you know the ones where you hear the words coming out of your mouth and everyone around you is nodding with what you're saying, but your brain isn't actually computing the words? So here was the wisdom that came pouring out of my mouth but has kept ruminating in my mind all day:

Truth is a person and that person is Jesus Christ. To know truth you must know the source of it. To know truth is to know Christ. To know Christ is to know truth. The more we seek truth the closer we come to Christ. That is why I always have hope that when someone is not living fully in the life of Christ (like any of us really are?) but it still searching for truth, I have the assurance that they are on the path towards Christ. Even if they are an athiest, if they are really searching for truth and continue in that search, they will find God at some point. (Hopefully before they die). But first, truth has to change our lives.

Truth is unchanging, eternal, always right. My beloved Lord never changes, will always be and always has me right in the palm of his hand. So today, I will seek truth, I will seek Christ.

Change; it's not just for the bottom of your pockets

It seems that my life, in a matter of a few weeks, may be flipping itself totally upside down and inside out. Even blogger has changed their site in order to make things a whole lot more cool looking... but I digress. Change is hard. I can't count the number of times that I have heard this over the past few weeks. With that comes the inevitable comment about God's plan and change coming out for the good.

Just for one moment, I would like to have a moment.

In an effort to cheer me up, most people don't want deal with the emotions swirling at the surface and waiting to burst forth. Change isn't just about the new, the exciting, the hopeful. Don't forget the side orders of fear, grief, surrender and even some pain. But for those with whom I meet sometimes I wonder if they don't want to deal with it. For some, being in a tough spot only reminds them of how close they can get to where I am, where I live 24/7. So they try to cheer me on, to boost my spirits by trying to encourage me to think about the possible.

But just for one moment, I need to have a moment.

In the midst of this, I found out why I keep some friends so close, because they are willing and waiting for me to have that moment, or many of them for that matter. They're even willing to let me have it in their presence, in all it's teary, ugly, sobbing glory. Just knowing that makes my need for the moment a little less.

So in the midst of job changes, relationships, possible moves, new family members and all sorts of other healing, I'm going to give myself a moment, maybe two, and if you are reading this and it happened to be on your shoulder, my profound thanks. To the God who is willing to listen to my questions and understand those sighs too deep for words, you have my heart.

ps. DISCLAIMER - I'm not talking about anyone in particular, but know that if you know someone in a similar difficult situation this might be where they are.

Speaking the truth

Mondays are usually the day I crash, sometimes it's not very pretty. These days usually involve me becoming some sort of vegetation that exists on chocolate and the BBC. Today was not one of those days and I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about it. Though I got some much needed rest, I ended up waking up at the time an appointment was supposed to start. Needless to say, I was a little discombobulated for the rest of the day. Lunch did include Pho, so the day was not a total wash. Really though it came down to an important work meeting that was this evening. Normally I wouldn't have darkened the door of the place that I work on my day off, but as I was reading the notes that the attendees were supposed to read beforehand, I knew that my heart and something deeper was urging me to get off my butt and go. I still need to learn not to resent going into work when it need to, but that's another post...
What strikes me tonight as I reflect back is that there is a difference in how a difficult truth is delivered. I couldn't not ask these questions and not speak up, but the reason was that I could not let my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ not hear the truth. The motivation doesn't come from anger or hurt in this case, but a sense of not wanting a particular group or person to remain in the place that they are. Rather, it's about calling them on too a greater truth, one that would help them grow even more into who they are. The hardest part though is that it costs. Tonight, all I wanted to do was remain on my couch and finally get to my hulu queue. It cost to get up and go, to wait to eat dinner, to stand up and say what was on my heart. Was I given instant gratification? Did everything resolve itself with a quick resolution? Nope. But there is a peace in knowing that in my call to be a prophet, I have tried to say what God has placed in my heart. The truth quite often is hard to speak and even more frequently costs us deeply to say. When it's done in love though, we can't go wrong.