Truth

What is Truth?

Why is Truth so important?

“Truth is important because…well, truth is…,”something my mind could not conjure up an answer to. I paused my stuttering momentarily to search my brain for an answer. When I couldn’t find it inside, I turned to the people around me, my eyes probing for a spark of insight that could illuminate the darkness of my mind. Yet, all I saw were befuddle expression, same as mine which I saw reflecting in their black pupils. Speaking for everyone, the “I don’t know” that ended my stuttering also ended the short discussion of Truth. However, the unanswerable questions were trapped inside of me—troubling me—with understanding being my only hope of peace.

For countless days after, the question would pester me, popping up again and again. And, every time it would take reign of my mind, I would try again and again to stumble upon an answer. But, only trivial examples of Truth would grace my awareness; like when I told my mom that I was actually the one who took the candy against her instructions. So, finally I found a perfect opportunity to explore the topic of Truth through a literature research project. With the help of several pieces of literature, I finally discovered several distinct characteristic of Truth and compiled a definition.
Truth is one; truth is reality—truth is existence; truth is eternal—truth is absolute; truth is unwavering—truth is independent of belief; truth is intrinsic—truth is knowledge; truth is happiness.

With this comprehensive definition of Truth, I assessed my previous thoughts about and experiences with Truth. I realized that throughout my life, I was told many lies about the Truth. It seems like every day I heard and still hear, “whatever is true to you is the Truth.” So often, with statements like that, we are delude into thinking that we can live happily in our own little worlds in which we are always right and govern all. This is wrong. The Truth is not whatever you want it to be. And, only knowing and living the Truth can bring genuine satisfaction.

Take for example the letter O. If one person says it is an O (the letter), yet another person says it is a 0 (zero), only one of them is correct. Although the latter person may believes my O is a 0 and that is what is true to them, it is not the Truth. Making a leap, this same simple concept applies to more complex things like philosophy and religion. Some people believe that there is a God and some don’t; some people believe in eternal life and some don’t. Yet, it is illogical that both are correct; it is impossible for person one to have eternal life, whether in heaven or hell, and person two to simply stop existing. It’s either one or the other, in no way both. This is the logic that I tested my definition of Truth with, and also the same logic that strengthened my faith in Jesus—my only source of Truth.

After all my secular research, it finally hit me that the Truth was inside of me the entire time, but I failed to see its light. God is the Truth; God is only one; God is reality; God is absolute; God is independent of belief; God is intrinsic; God is happiness. Looking through the Bible and Christian history, I see so many examples of the strength that Truth gave to believers. The disciples of Jesus were able to face the opposition of the entire world to spread the Truth to others. It was not their strength, because they were mere men, but the strength of their belief in the Truth. During the time of Nero Caesar, the believers were able to sing praise to God while being mauled by lions. It was not manmade bliss, for they were physically suffering, but the happiness of living in the Truth. And today, I am able to move forward through life with unfailing conviction in my heart. It is not through my cleverness or my courage that I defeat deception; it is only through Jesus—Son of God, God of Truth.