By Eric Stogner -December 2023
For my inaugural article posting on A Minute To Midnite, I wanted to share the fundamental reason describing the ‘why” behind why I write these essays I may share in this forum. That reason is that I have this unrelenting desire to know the truth. I love truth and I hate falsehood. I can’t stand being manipulated, or even just going along with others when I don’t understand or agree with something – and I hope you feel the same way.
The desire for truth can be both a blessing and a curse. It is often helpful to know what is real and it can be comforting to ‘know that you know that you know’ a certain topic. But it can also be a burden to always “need” to understand and get to the bottom of things, hoping not only to know what is correct but also to try to understand why it is so. Perhaps my education as an engineer and innovator is what drives me to always seek to understand how things works or why I should trust something to be as it is described. But, I have that drive and almost an obsession in me and I write these short essays mostly for others who do also. I like to assume that I am not alone in this desire for wisdom.
I also remember the old adage that “ignorance is bliss”. And I get it. There is some truth in the idea that sometimes we can be happier by being shielded from some unpleasant realities. I certainly don’t think it is healthy or helpful to just marinate in only cold harsh reality. We need balance, refreshment, relief, and hope.
But, I think it is clear that most of the world is drowning in ignorance and I don’t see much bliss. I see a lot of escapism as a means of soothing the discomfort of various struggles or avoiding the unnamed anxiety that most people carry around all the time and don’t even realize it. I tend to think that this anxiety is often inflicted on us deliberately – to wear society down. Whether it is binging on Netflix, being mesmerized by social media, taking up the use of medical or recreational marijuana or some other form of self-medication, people are profoundly weary and numb to reality and they are ‘checking out’ at an alarming rate. And they are shutting down their minds as well – switching off what little common sense and critical thinking they may have had. And this is a very dangerous thing to do – both for individuals and as a society.
This is how people get lulled into a false sense of calm when they are actually in great danger. Like frogs in the proverbial pot, who are being boiled alive because the danger has crept in so subtly and the warming water has often felt good as it lulled them into a relaxed state. People start to think that perhaps we can all just be blissful and enjoy the nice warm water like in a hot tub, when in reality we are actually heading to our death by being boiled alive due to the ignorance that comes from only seeking bliss and comfort, but not the truth.
I also need to reveal another foundational reason for writing. I am a Christian and all I share is from that worldview. And, just as I don’t like being deceived, I also don’t like to make ‘blind’ leaps of faith. I don’t have a blind faith, I have a faith that is ‘eyes wide open’. For me, faith is not a blind leap, but a sound position arrived at based on observable truth – truth found in the bible and confirmed in the world around me. If you asked me my faith story, I would say that long ago, I read the bible and then looked around at the world and what I noticed was that I couldn’t observe anything happening around me in the world that was not fully explained in the bible. Therefore, whoever wrote and inspired this ancient book, clearly knew what is eternally true for a book that old and prophetic to be so accurate today and in every age. No other book, or belief system, explains all that can be observed with such accuracy. The bible for me is God’s truth, and reality proves it out day after day. Humans and the human condition does not change, just like God’s word and truth. Therefore, my faith is not blind and without confirmation.
And, as part of my Christian faith, I choose to trust in the Lord for all things – including giving me a pathway forward, or a way out, or the grace to go through whatever unpleasant truth comes my way. So, learning about unpleasant truths need not be something all that fearful. Part of that faith is the trust that Jesus came to show us the way. In fact, John 14:6 records a bold statement that Jesus made of himself when he said “I am the way, the truth and the life – and that no one comes to the Father except through me”.
That set of statements says a whole lot about who Jesus is, but for this essay, I want to focus on the word truth. He not only was saying that he speaks truth, but that he IS truth – that he embodies truth and all that is true. That is really quite amazing. And yet it makes sense. He is creator of all things and therefore he created all that is true, he knows all that is true and false, and he is not like a man that he would be tempted to or have any reason to lie – so what he speaks is the truth and nothing but the truth.
Now that is what we could all use (especially today) a source of actual truth – not truth that is subjective or relative to anyone’s prospective or experience and not more disinformation or misinformation that we are already awash in these days. And I want to tie this into one more scripture passage: 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12. Here Paul is describing how deception brought about by Satan will overtake the masses. He writes that there will be many ways in which the wicked deceive those who are perishing (like the frogs in the pot). And how, “They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie, and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.”
Do you see that? This is where ignorance is NOT bliss, but death. This is saying that there is truth and there are lies. Jesus was sent to demonstrate and embody the ultimate truth about everything that matters in this life. He has presented himself as the truth, and those who choose to ignore him and ignore the truth about him (and instead prefer deceptions) are on the road to death. So, God is essentially saying, ‘fine, if this is what you prefer then I will hand you over to your preferences and indeed you will get what you want and deserve’. He even allows those who refuse to seek and embrace the truth to go ahead and be deceived in that scripture says He “sends a strong delusion” to those folks – since they refused to pursue and love the truth.
This really comes back to: Either you love the Lord who is truth and who speaks only truth, or you don’t. Or, you choose to follow deceptions and love the world and all the cornucopia of falsehoods that it holds up as its own truth. People today like to say, “this is my truth”, or they are “living their own authentic truth” and what is “true to them”. But, that’s just it. Since when do we as flawed and fallen people ever have a corner on the market for truth? Who really knows or lives truth? Truth ultimately can only come from outside humans, from a transcendent creator who made all things and knows all things. Why is that so hard to understand. Every other person’s truth is a ‘relative or subjective truth’.
Think about Adam and Eve. Wasn’t this the core of the original sin? Because it wasn’t simply eating an apple. It was the fact that they decided that they knew better than God and that they should be in the position to decide for themselves what is true or not. The ability to determine truth was held out by the serpent as how they would become ‘like God’. They were usurping God’s power and prerogative in the first act of mistrust in human history. Prior to that, all was well in the garden. We don’t really possess that capacity to set truth – only God does. We do possess the power to accept or reject God’s truth. That is what is at stake in this life. When we try to establish a new truth, apart from God’s pre-existing truth we are often emotional train-wrecks, always seeking our own short-term fix or a pathway that isn’t exactly good for others in our quest for pleasure and self-medication. We often manufacture truths that suit our needs and not God’s needs or the needs of others. We numb out and seek our own truth, instead of seeking the author of truth and actually trusting in Him as our God and Father.
So, there you have it – why I wrote these essays. They are all about seeking truth in our world so that we might always remember whose truth is ultimately true and that we might retain our love of truth as we seek peace with the one who is truth – Jesus our redeemer and savior. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free, while most of the rest of the world remains awash in deception.
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