Lost Without Truth

   School begins tomorrow...again.  After exactly three-point-five days of school last week, we are now just concluding a four-day holiday weekend.  It is appreciated but still rather strange to have such a long weekend following what was essentially a short week.  We have four days of school this week -- with two of them being spent with my students at camp -- before another weekend is upon us.    We have no real chance of getting into a routine together until maybe next week. So it is.

   I deal with children whose world is changing so quickly around them.  I listened to a speaker named Abdu Murray yesterday.  His premise is that the world is changing exponentially faster on our children than it ever has on any previous generation.  His claim is that we as a society are now past a post-modern phase of thinking and into what he has labeled "the post-truth age."  The post-modern age is highlighted by the call to be accepting of differences we find in each other; post-truth reasoning makes anyone a villain who dares to espouse that there are definite truths governing our world.  If I believe in Biblical norms, I am intolerant.  If I believe in the sanctity of marriage, I am a bigot.  If I dare express truth regarding the claims of Jesus Christ, I am essentially Hitler and Stalin rolled into one great evil tyrannical maniac.  Post-modernism still held room for the possibility of finding truth.  Post-truth claims there is no truth to discover.  When truth is dispelled, there are no guideposts or landmarks to chart our course.  There is no common ground or genuine community between individuals and groups of people.  A "self-first" society turns us even more inward.  Ultimately there is no reason to help someone in need, there is no reason to show empathy for someone in a difficult situation, there is no reason to "love one another."
   For those of us who are striving to shape the world of our children, this can all be scary, like the waves the disciples were focusing on while in their boat.  But when Jesus showed up, the waves were calmed and the disciples once again witnessed the power of truth in action.  Jesus often reminded them of how he epitomized what was true: Jesus was "...full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).  He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6).  He began so many of his teachings with the phrase "I tell you the truth..." Truth is rooted in Jesus Christ.  Truth can be offensive.  We may not like it, but our opinions, which the world is now claiming must guide us, are fickle and without merit.  It is only through truth that we can live lives that have any kind of meaning, for as Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free" (John 8:31-32).
   School will be in session again tomorrow.  Truth will be there, on display every day for my students.  That fact will be the framework of everything we do, even if it is not routine in other places.