One of our recent "Becomingcasts" was called "A Quality Search." Since posting it, this topic has been on my mind non-stop. I wrote about it in the Richmond Times Dispatch in last Saturday's "Faith and Values" column and I have been thinking about it over and over.
The core of it is that most people do not search for truth, they search for a confirmation of the belief system in which they are already invested. What this means is that most people believe not what is true, but they believe what they WANT to believe. There are infinite reasons why we do this - we have emotional investments, lifestyle commitments, prejudicial viewpoints, memories of experiences, relational investments, job security, family beliefs - and on and on the list goes. I appreciate and understand these things, but they can be obstacles to the truth. Very few people then, actually pursue truth - rather they pursue information to support the position in which they are most invested. In doing this, if the truth should actually present itself, we tend to resist it - to turn away from it, to explain it away because we don't WANT it to be true.
Years ago when searching for truth, I was an atheist who was a pretty happy guy. I studied and explored various religions and found them to be sort of philosophical milk toast. What I mean is that they didn't require any commitment of the will or the intellect. In this regard, they are not threatening to an atheist. Then someone asked me to read the New Testament and here's where things began to change. I could see that Jesus was saying some things that had teeth to them - he taught a singular path of truth. This leaves one into an uncomfortable position of wrestling with what he said as being either true or untrue. Most people pick and choose from the teachings of Jesus and call themselves Christians. But this is not Christianity, this is home- made self-serving religion. Christianity, if true, means life change, it asks for moral and intellectual commitment, and here's where it gets uncomfortable. Once I began to realize this, I didn't WANT it to be true. But the foundational question of the honest seeker remains, "Yes, but IS it true?" An honest seeker you see, is after truth, not confirmations of currently held positions. It's hard to be an honest seeker. Very hard. For me, after about two years of arguing, I came to see that Jesus was true, and I had no choice but to reluctantly yield to Him. I say "reluctantly" because that's the way it felt then. It doesn't feel that way now.
Here's another example; years ago a friend challenged me to read an essay from a writer who I like very much. The essay was the writer's testimony of why he converted from protestantism to catholicism. The friend said, "Would you like to read it?" I said, "No." The friend said, "Why not?" I said, "Because I'm afraid I'll agree with Him and then I'll have become a catholic and that would present all kinds of difficulties for me." She gave me the essay anyway.
Afraid of it, I let it sit on my desk for months, but like an intruder, it kept knocking until I finally read it. I picked it up, nervous about the implications it could present to me. You see, I didn't want it to be true - and that's why I didn't want to read it. The reason I tell this story is because it reveals the matter of the will, in the search for truth. It's the biggest matter at the outset. Ravi Zacharias says that when we seek truth, the first matter is the intent not the content. What he means is that the intent of our hearts is going to be more important overall than the validity of the content - because the content can present us with information but our will is how we decide what we will do with it.
When Nicodemus came to Jesus in John chapter 3, they talked about the kingdom of God and how one enters it. ' Jesus answered Nicodemus, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit."' Do you understand the water and the spirit part? Water is cleansing. The first step in the search for truth. That our will would be cleansed of prejudicial judgements. If that happens, and only if that happens, can our spirit come alive by God's Holy Spirit.
This entry is already too long - but feels like sermon series brewing.
