Memories from my early childhood include how I started learning certain new words in church. It seems to me there was never a meeting announced in church that my parents did not attend and brought me along. In addition to that there were also many private assemblies, Bible study groups, etc, where our absence was unthinkable.
A very important word used in many of these convocations was the word TRUTH, so that word became an important word to me in my early vocabulary. As I grew older the word developed different meanings, depending on where it was used. Truth was no longer just truth, but there was also "real truth", and "super truth". Gradually it dawned on me that there is also "presumed truth", and then I discovered how some people used the word as a "camouflage" and even as a "weapon" to hide their ignorance of the truth.
Some of you may have heard me use this story: Many years ago I worked for a great contractor at Berrien Springs together with students and others associated with our church. One of these preferred discovering his own truths apart from the college. One day he came to work overwhelmed with the new truth he had discovered, that there was a great blessing in celebrating the birthday of Creation on March 21. I asked him how he had discovered that "truth". It was evident, he claimed, because that was when spring and summer started, so that must be the time when God created the world. He also referred to a document he had from some "group".
Then I mentioned that this is the date when fall starts in all of the countries south of Equator, so I asked him if God had created the southern or northern hemisphere six months before or after? He said he hadn't thought of that. He kept working, but was unusually quiet for a couple of hours. Then suddenly he exclaimed, "Soak your head, I'm leaving!"
When I saw his girlfriend some days later she hadn't seen him either since that day. Our boss was looking for him to pay him his last salary. I wonder where he went? Was it my fault he disappeared? I never saw him after that.
Since then I have been rather apprehensive when I have met people who decorate themselves or hide behind the term "truth". They also seem rather vulnerable when they collide with truth and it forces them to silences.
I welcome your comment - or attempt to prove me wrong!