Friday, May 19, 2017

Five Minute Friday: TRUTH


As I do on most Fridays, I'm joining up with Kate Motaung's Five Minute Friday linkup. 
The word this week is TRUTH.








 **************

Someone once wrote these words to me:

"We need to get to the truth before we can find our way back to love again."

This was someone I loved. Someone who loved me. Someone with whom I had had a very difficult conflict.

When I read those words, this is what they said to me:

"You are wrong, but you are not willing to admit it. That is why we can't reconcile. Once you admit you are wrong, then maybe I will be willing to consider re-establishing a relationship with you."

I have thought about that a lot since then. Is that how relationships work: admit you're wrong (even if you don't think you are) so that the person will condescend to love you again? That doesn't sound like relationship, it sounds like judgment: assemble an agreed statement of facts and render a verdict.

I want to say that the reverse is true: love always takes the lead. It always establishes the safety and commitment of the relationship first, providing a sound foundation from which truth can be explored. That makes sense to me.

But in the end, I don't think truth and love are separate things. Maybe my finite mind needs to talk about them separately to try and make sense of them -- but they are really different ways of saying the same thing. The Bible says "God is Love," and Jesus says "I am the Truth." 

God is both of those things, all the time. He doesn't lean toward one or the other depending on which is most appropriate in the circumstances. His love is always truthful; his truth is always loving. 
  
I don't fully understand how this can be -- but I believe it. And it helps me, because now when I hear truth and love being spoken of as distinct, or opposite, or conflicting, I recognize that this is a concession to our human way of thinking. The deeper reality is this: 

Truth and Love are inseparable. 

**************

12 comments:

  1. God is love and truth. Amen. Glad to be your neighbor at #fmf.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, if God is love and Jesus is the truth they can't really be separated. It's so hard to get the balance but we do need both working together.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Lesley. Yes, we constantly want to emphasize one over the other but I don't think it ever really works.

      Delete
  3. Oh Jeannie ... you've packed a whole lot of wisdom into 300 seconds. Bless you, girl ...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much, Linda; that means a lot coming from you! Have a good weekend.

      Delete
  4. This is so profound, Jeannie, that love and truth are inseparable. It's something I never thought about before, but I instantly saw how right it is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Andrew. I guess we could ponder it for a lifetime and never really understand it.

      Delete
  5. Great insights on truth and love, Jeannie. The relationship of truth and love do not call for balance. They are part and parcel of one another - inseparable, as you conclude.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Tim. As a five minute Friday post this was not, I have to acknowledge, a fully thought out analysis. But I wanted to explore it anyway.

      Delete
  6. Jeannie, these words encourage my heart more than you know. I'm struggling now with the fact that a young person I LOVE has walked away from the TRUTH. So hard to know when to just express love, when to drop in a nugget of truth. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is hard, Betsy -- just having the wisdom to know what to say, and what not to, and when. I'm glad my very spontaneous thoughts are helpful to you!
      :-)

      Delete

Please leave a comment; I love to hear from readers. (And tell me who you are if you're comfortable doing that -- sometimes the comment form defaults to Anonymous.)