When TRUTH becomes personal.

Listen here:  https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/24a35b8b/when-truth-bec...

This Morning Briefing comes on the heels of a casual conversation in which truth was defined by my gym friend as 'whatever I believe to be true.' [What is your Truth?https://conta.cc/46YRM2t] He saw absolute truth as narrow, not real. Whereas when asked, I stated that there is no 'your truth, my truth', only the truth. That is because truth is telling it like it is.

Truth becomes vitally important when the rubber hits the road, and you want answers.

When you are looking for meaning in life and purpose for your life, you want truth - not subjective truth that can change with your feelings, but objective truth--something outside yourself, based on absolute truth.

Some people ask these hard questions early in life, I guess. This little one had a head full of blonde curls and big brown eyes. One night after we said our prayers, I kissed her ‘good night’ and then she looked up and asked, ‘Mommy, can you tell me why I am here?’ Sigh.

And then the next night, thinking I had answered her sufficiently she said, ‘but Mommy, what is the meaning of life?’ Yes, I had a deep thinker, and she was only seven years old. Somehow she needed answers to these questions in order to make sense out of her young existence. That was 32 years ago, and she is my Amy. Today is her birthday.

Some ask these questions at about 23 years of age—college degree in hand, life not spinning out as their career counselor OR they had planned. ‘I worked so hard to graduate from UCLA, get hired off campus and … for what? For this?’ Other people do not ask these questions until the bottom drops out of their lives—you know, like when the person nearest and dearest to them dies too soon or their husband walks out the door. Then too, I have been on the soccer field when the 40ish-something woman whose kids are more-or-less self sufficient, tells me she is bored with her husband, bored with her life, and wants to know, ‘Really? This is all there is?!’

The questions Amy raised at age 7 are fundamental to a meaningful existence, whether asked in youth, at some sort of wake up call or even when face-to-face with our own mortality.

Let’s go back those years ago as I first tried to answer her meaning of life question, ‘Oh, Amy, can’t we just play Barbies?’ to which she said, ‘But, Mommy...' So I looked into those much-too-wise eyes and answered what I knew to be true, that which I could trust. ‘Honey, you are here because God created you. You are different than anyone else alive, anyone that has come before and any that will ever be born. And Amy, You are loved by God, Honey.’ Okay, good.

And the next question: ‘what is the meaning of life?’ (or put another way, ‘what is my purpose?’) I knew that my answer would either satisfy her and she would be able to go to sleep, or she would lie there and think about it, and pursue her line of questioning the next night. What could I say to one so young? ‘Amy, you are here—your purpose is—to have a relationship with God and then grow up to honor Him. Yes, you are here to please God.’ And with that, she looked at me and said, ‘Well okay then,’ and sighed. Soon all I could see were two half-crescents of long eyelashes against her freckled cheeks.

The questions she asked were fundamental to the worldview Amy was developing. Looking back now, I can see how they formed a framework for living life and for setting her life’s goals. Whatever she did, ‘she worked at it with all her heart, as working for the Lord’ (Colossians 3.23), and to the very best of her God-given abilities--in academics, sports, leadership, but especially in personal integrity. And when she went to UC Berkeley for her undergraduate degree in psychology, neither the anti-God, secular bent of the university nor her professors deterred her from her goal of glorifying/honoring God.

She knew from whom she had come—God the Creator—

why she was here - for relationship and the honor of God--

so her parameters were clear.

So, if she ‘loved the Lord with all her heart, with all her soul, with all her mind, and with all her strength’, (as Jesus said was the first and greatest commandment- Mark 12.30), then she was on track. Yes, she was indeed set to fulfill her purpose—the reason ‘why’ she was here. 

This is the beginning of a worldview, a philosophy of life—a way of looking at reality. ‘Could be a Christian worldview which begins with an all-knowing God as Creator and Designer, or a secular one, which most certainly does not. Either way, how you look at life on a daily basis is affected by it. Whether life seems to be ordered or random, including one’s idea of purpose, is affected by personal worldview. Our answers must be set on truth or our lives are like a house of cards that will surely blow over when the wind comes.

Truth: you were created and designed by God for relationship with Him.

You have a purpose that flows from your desire to honor God in the unique ways

he created and gifted you.

And my response? A Thousand Hallelujahs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR_sI9lkowA

To honor God, my Creator and Savior,

Christine

PastorWoman.net