What’s a body to believe these days? Between fake news, privacy breaches and rampant social media on the loose, knowing what’s worth believing is sometimes anything but easy to discern. Believing the right things is vital, however, be they matters of daily living, politics, faith or a host of other things.
Mark Twain once said, “If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything”. In an almost prophetic gesture to the power of social media, Winston Churchill once said: “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”
Anyone who’s lived in a small town is well acquainted with the rapid spread of misinformation. Although I laugh about it now, at the time it didn’t seem very funny to be the subject of an untrue story circulating in the area where we’d recently moved. Just weeks after we’d arrived I heard, via the grapevine, that our two sons were adopted. While adoption is a wonderful privilege for many, I hadn’t forgotten the trauma of two very difficult births. If I’d ever experienced an example of fake news that was it.
When Jesus was on earth He spoke often of the matter of truth but most often the people were more interested in his acts than convinced of his words. They wanted the bread he multiplied, the miracles of healing he performed or the choice wine he created from water. To accept the words he spoke to them as unconditional truth was not on their agenda.
In speaking to Thomas, Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Fake news, privacy breaches and the explosion of false information have been around as long as humanity itself, thank God, so has truth!
