Truth is Stranger Than Fiction

[HKHaugan]

Truth is Stranger Than Fiction

Actually we can change that expression to read “Truth is a stranger to fiction.” The life we live on this planet is fictional until we find that the truth is God Himself. The word becomes truth with a capital 'T.'  What we undo when we meet God in Jesus Christ is to reorient ourselves to truth being spiritual, personal and relational. When Jesus says He is truth, that changes everything. Truth is no longer a philosophical concept, a verifiable fact or an unreachable ideal. Truth is a living person whose life with all its words and actions constitute an unchangeable personal reality. It was God revealing Himself, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb.13:8).” Like Jesus said, “Sanctify them by the truth, your Word is truth (Jn.17:17),” “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was, I Am (Jn.8:58),” “I and the Father are One (Jn.10:30).” Those are not platitudes. They are a self declaration. Jesus is the Word (Jn.1:1). He prays that the Father will sanctify, set apart for His use, those who believe in the Father through Him.

Now back to fiction. Fiction is imaginative pondering, the stuff of novels, movies and fantasy land. It is a caffeinated 'Twilight Zone.' But extend that into what we do apart from God and we see the world atmosphere, the secular mindset, the belief systems that make idols out of our intellect, emotions and behavior. It is the process of actually replacing God with self, me, 'I', in my every next moment where my perception of life is what 'I' make out of it; the 'self-made' man. That is fiction we can understand on an everyday level.

Therefore, we see Jesus as a stranger to fiction. That makes all of us who believe in Him strangers in this world (1Pet.1:1). Think of Jesus reading Ps.119:19, “I am a stranger on earth,”... “I have chosen the way of truth, I have set my heart on your laws (vs.30),”... “I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts (vs.45).”

If Jesus is a stranger to fiction then that makes us as His believers also strangers to fiction. Our inner struggle is between the fictional life the world offers and the life of personal truth Jesus offers. In that new sense then, truth is stranger than fiction as well as a stranger to it. This brings us to a new level of thinking, spiritual thinking, thinking like a stranger.

This takes me back to an earlier time in our country when you could walk out the door and not lock it. You could leave your car with the motor running or park and leave the keys in it and it would be there when you got back. It was a time when you would go to school and the class would start with the Lord's Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. The Bible sat on the teacher's desk. It was 'yes, sir' to men and 'yes ma'am' to ladies. There was always 'grace' said at public dinners which closed with a benediction by a local minister. Policemen, firemen, servicemen, and teachers were treated with respects as were all adults by children. Even people who did not believe respected by silence the public prayers of those who did. There was no question we were all raised to be patriotic. We were taught American history with all the stories of Washington, Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, the world wars and the Civil War with all the embellishments of regional pride. School was all about learning and not social engineering or self esteem. Accomplishment was honored, hard work admired and taught, education lifted up as a prime value.

All of that stuff was the stuff in which I grew up but societies change and the change of this one in which we live has made me a stranger in a strange land. But for three reasons:

First, it is strange because our country is in danger of losing its foundation. Our American history is lost to most. When history goes so do the values that created it. Those values were spiritual values. They were the invisible fabric that made visible living stable and productive. Now it is every man and woman for themselves. It is no longer a fabric but a melting plastic cover. When prenatal human life can be called a fetus instead of a person, when a man and a woman can no longer be recognized by their biological reality, when personal rights and self esteem are more important than mutual love of family and its nurture, when the flag can be trampled upon and the concept of a borderless nation is promoted in our legislative halls, when our political leadership is more concerned with the support and acceptance of illegal immigrants than for its born citizens and when the same leadership is more concerned with staying in power, when pornography makes more money than the three major sports put together, we are on the verge of losing our identity as a nation.

Second, it is strange because when you lose your spiritual identity you lose your individuality as a person. When you lose that, you lose your freedom which is taken over by total and complete self centeredness. When your personal identity is of more concern than anything else you actually lose the one thing that makes you unique, your faith, your belief, what you trust to become a person with purpose, dignity and significance. When I and what I want become the driving force we inadvertently become victims, victims of our imperfections, victims of every movement that brings the false promise of success. At the bottom of all this self centeredness is its cause, sin. This drags us into the mire of blaming anyone and anything for me not getting what I want whenever I want it. It means I'm afraid of not being accepted. Then, maybe too late, I find I am a victim of my body's daily demands for comfort, pleasure and survival. My inner self is crying for something and that something over which I have no control.

Third, it is strange because personal relationships become optional when perceived needs replace real needs. What our real needs are is quite different from our perceived needs. Our perceived needs are what our immediate situation calls for. It is the 'I want' that covers what I see without and the desire that the body initiates. It is the momentary satisfaction becomes a need. The perception of the immediate drives the moment. Real needs are those that fulfill the long term accomplishments defining character and the means to build it. Things like hard work, spiritual growth, consciousness of the needs in others like relational needs, family centered concerns, enduring friendships, community service, to name a few. Real needs are spiritually, personally and relationally centered, because that's where we really live.

When our nation loses its spiritual history, individuals lose their spiritual identity and relationships become self defined and optional. Thus, a nation's people become vulnerable to an 'every-man-for- himself' moment to moment survival mode. A nation collapses from within and its enemies plunder the leftovers. Greece then Rome set the examples and prior nations set the stage. Are we next?

We have been given the gift of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the changer of hearts. As people's hearts go so goes the groups in which they live. It's time to let loose of the fictional life so many have embraced in our material culture. Hearts brought to Jesus find their spiritual foundation. When that happens the nations in which they live prosper. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord (Ps.33:12).”  Truth is a stranger to fiction.