Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Truth is Ugly and Her Mother Dresses Her Funny

Benjamin Franklin once said that "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to eat for dinner." We often treat our beliefs the same way, "voting" for what we want to believe out of convenience. Any worldview that has no inconvenient truth should be held in suspicion.

Franklin also said, "The sting in any rebuke is the truth."

Truth is not always pretty. In fact, she is quite ugly and her mother dresses her funny....

“Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good." - Thomas Sowell

What do you believe in? What do you believe regarding the world we live in and life itself? Is it a convenient belief demanding nothing of your own life?

On the other hand, Woody Allen took the negative approach:

"More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly."

Shakespeare expressed his pessimism this way:
“I am sick at heart. . . . To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day. To the last syllable of recorded time; life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing,” (Act V, Scene V)

As Chesterton explains in his book "Orthodoxy", we need a worldview that allows us to see the brokenness of the world, but values it enough to motivate us to make it better.

The pendulum can swing from one extreme to the other, but in the middle is a balance between a God that is good and a world that is broken. In this balance, my eyes have been opened to the flaws of this broken world, and a passion that has been a given a song to heal it.

My faith in Christ presents to me the unattractive truths of eternal judgement. It demands the price of my life, given as a sacrificial act as I attempt to discipline it and bring it under His subjection. However, this very act of sacrifice is also an act of worship and in that worship, I am given meaning, purpose, passion.... Nothing worth attaining comes without a price. Life comes with a price tag. Are you willing to invest?

No comments: