Week 1: Your “truth” vs The Truth
A Person
“Live out your truth!”, “Find your truth!”, and “Express yourself in your truth!” seem to be the most popular, thematic phrases shouted from the mountain tops of popular social media platforms these days. No social media user will come across any “inspirational”/“self-love” personal pages that don’t overtly and continuously express such strong egotism. I used to find it comical how these metaphorical mountain tops that offer virtual reach to millions of people simply end up delivering the most resounding messages only in echo chambers. This only became a realistic threat to me when I realized the planet’s most powerful figures decided to reside in those echo chambers. And if the world powers reside in those echo chambers, all morality will be sacrificed until everyone else does too.
“Be who you are, and don’t let anyone change you”, prominent social and political figures preach day in and day out, as they indeed try to change you discreetly via your university education and current idolatrous influence (favorite internet celebrities, the news, films, etc). “No one can deny your truth!” the masses scream violently into the faces that dare to have a dissenting thought, all in the name of “tolerance”, “justice” and “love.” Well, I dare to ask this question to the deceitful authorities, in all thoughtfulness—have any of these people considered the idea that truth is not something, but rather Someone? We consistently refer to the truth as a neutral, intangible object in the English language, when it is in fact a Person. Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, is indeed the Truth, the Way, and the Life. There is no other than Him, and my story here will help you understand why that is so. If you so choose to read and ponder difficult things while perhaps being entertained by my personal journey through higher education and life, I urge you to read on. I won’t pull any punches in this book because I’m frankly exhausted from hearing my own silence amidst the usurpation of critical and free thought in the majority of universities.
Here’s a hard truth for you—“your truth” doesn’t exist; there is no such thing as subjective morality. These are facts of life that I had to learn to swallow and digest throughout my college-youth, and that I thankfully no longer wrestle with. As difficult as this may be to accept, I would serve you not by saying otherwise. As a young woman studying on a very progressive campus, fresh to the world, mind like a sponge, I was consistently berated with such notions about “my truth” and “what ethics mean to me”–not even including news or social media propaganda. If it weren’t for my small, but incredibly humble and impactful church that sat right off of campus, I don’t know where my mind would be today. Naturally it took much time, prayer, and obedience, but by the grace of God I arrived at a place where I finally understand that I “…do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places,”, Ephesians 6:12. Our fellow man is not the enemy, but our fellow man is certainly working in his favor.
Reality Check
There is a distinct difference between reality and our opinions about reality, yet those lines continue to be intentionally blurred. Everyone should be entitled to their opinion and be free to express their thoughts, but as the saying goes “Opinions are like *blank*, everyone’s got them”—I don’t intend to be crass, so you can fill in the space there. Without differing and dissenting opinions, we’d have no diversity of thought, no individualism, no accountability, no healthy conversation, and no learning—which I’m led to believe is the exact intent of the insidious powers that be. But we must remember that within the objective morality that Christ set forth Himself, that we cannot force our will onto others.
In His perfect example to us, God gave us free will. In all His mercy, God loves us and wishes for us to cooperate with His divine energies to love Him back, however He will never force us to do so. Now this isn’t to say that the Lord never gave us rules and rights to live by, He did. There is a right way to live, in terms of not infringing on others’ God-given rights, even if you don’t believe in Christ. We can hold whatever beliefs or opinions we want about God, but that doesn’t change the reality of Who He was, is, and Who He always will be. We can hold whatever opinions or beliefs that we want about ourselves and other people, but there is a big difference between infringement and disagreement. As preposterous as it feels to have to write this, I must clarify that disagreeing with and/or denying what someone else believes to be true is not wrong, and definitely not “violent” or “intolerant”, as the popularized mob-mentality groups purport.
Speak Freely, at Your Own Risk
With great thanks to America’s forefathers, many Americans have been able to enjoy free will for centuries. Never discounting truly oppressed groups who righteously fought/fight for liberties, we must address how our America has begun to regress into the past with her attempts to remove established freedoms from the Constitution. There was never a time I had imagined that “the land of the free'' would censor my divergent thinking in the college classroom (a place of supposed critical thought), simply because it did not ‘fit the educational narrative.’ There is a way to have civil arguments and maintain humane disagreement without violating anyone’s personal rights, we just aren’t collectively seeking authentic conversation in our little Western bubble. The thought of how little my generation (Z) actually knows about the political history of other countries is quite discouraging. You should be able to repeatedly tell me until you’re blue in the face about how you hate Jesus, how you hate me, and think all Christians are terrible. This doesn’t change Who Jesus is, or my right to worship Him peacefully. I should be able to tell you point blank that I don’t believe that the Islamic faith is entirely peaceful, or that I don't believe in getting sex-reassignment surgery, or even that I strongly hate white chocolate candy–yet none of these things are inhibiting you from worshiping who you want, changing your own body to your liking, or enjoying white chocolate! We are now at a point where forced consensus is the norm and contrasting opinions on anything can easily be labeled as offensive and harmful. “You cannot deny someone else’s reality or belief, because it’s how they feel and how they feel is true '', is some of the most dangerous propaganda pervasively swirling around the minds of America’s youth who endeavor higher education.
“Construct and control your reality” is egregious advice I was given repeatedly, in an attempt to inspire me to be ambitious and hardworking. While the intentions came from a good place of those who told me, “controlling my reality” would’ve been nothing other than a blissful illusion that offered temporary sweetness and a bitter end. “Constructing your reality” has been popularized in both liberal and New-Age communities where there is frequent overlap and much delusion. When I say New-Age, I mean groups of like-minded individuals who modernly practice rebranded occult rituals and beliefs. For some examples, tarot card reading is a form of sorcery, saging your home is inviting demons into your space (not cleansing it), and yoga is a form of idol worship. Most Christians probably do not realize that they hold a New-Age belief or practice that is in direct contradiction to our faith, because occultist advocacy has been rebranded and advertised so well. I’ll speak more to this in later articles.
Back to reality construction–I believe that from birth we have all been given the proper tools to work hard and struggle, with ambition, one way or another. I stand by the belief that each and every human is capable of creating and achieving incredible things, no matter what their toolboxes look like–however, it is important to not be disillusioned with the idea that we have ultimate control and power over all things in our life. God allows us all to struggle in different ways, within our free will, so that we may “Fight the good fight”, 1 Timothy, 6:12. It’s a slippery slope, because if we are aware of free will, we must take full accountability for our thoughts, words, and deeds, yet ultimately understand that we are not in full control. Only One has ultimate control, and you should know Who I mean by now.
Don’t Be “Holier Than Thou”, Just Try Your Best
While my beloved New-Age friends only intended to inspire me with their beliefs on reality, I’ll still continue to derive my ambition from and work hard for the only God. I’ll continue to work on achieving greatness not tolerance, and to seek the Truth. I do not express all of these things to you because I have taken the “holier than thou” stance, but rather the “I’ve been there and done that!” stance. I strive to be none other than a humble servant of the Lord, even as unworthy as I am. I say nothing to judge my fellow brothers and sisters for I am less than all of you, but I must tell the truth for the sake of what is Good and Holy. I desire to serve you with guidance from the Lord. I pray that anyone who reads this now who is not living in repentance, may make the righteous choice to repent! I am compelled to share the honest stories of my own account as well as the accounts of my loved ones. Many have suffered at the mercy of the worldly powers that serve the father of lies, so I intend to use my words here to serve the Prince of peace, in all humility. May we all never stop searching for the authentic Truth that is God. I will continually pray that we all turn our hearts towards the one Holy Church, and that hopefully my works are helpful and relatable along your journey.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened”, Matthew 7:7-8.
