"On 'What If?'"

The old timers would have called it a gullywasher--the kind of rain where the windows of heaven open and water comes down in sheets. If one is caught in it, they are drenched to the bone in a matter of minutes.

My task at hand was to remove the leaves from the sidewalks, and I had donned my rain gear. Landscape maintenance at the law office is a usual Sunday job, but I needed to do the work on Saturday instead. I had an urgent Sunday commitment, a trip to the Portland airport to pick up my Idaho grandgirl, visiting for Thanksgiving. Postponing the work was not an option, so I gritted my teeth and proceeded to deal with the last of the season’s fallen leaves.    

Glancing up, I saw my client motioning for me to come out of the rain and up onto the porch. The historic former home of the city's founding father has a deep covered porch across its front with benches on either side of the front door with its leaded glass windows. I accepted his silent invitation. We sat and visited, all the while watching the rain come down in torrents.  

We have had an employer/employee relationship for several years. I tend the area on weekends, and we have visited often, sharing the activities and events in the lives of our families and on a personal level as well. That kind of an exchange took place once again as we discussed Thanksgiving plans—the food and those we would share the day with. The reality of change was also a topic front and center as we compared the growth and development of children and grandchildren.  

As we chatted, our conversation shifted. With great emphasis and conviction, he stated: “I believe in one less god than most. I also believe that at the end of this life we all just become compost.” I remained silent, neither expressing my point of view nor attempting to dissuade his. 

That comment, however, was fodder for thought in the ensuing days. What is it about mankind, these humans that we are, that causes us to feel if we preface a statement with “I believe,” that somehow makes it so--that TRUTH is then stamped upon our personal credos with those two words?

"I believe" and "truth" are not automatically one and the same; they are not necessarily synonymous. 

When I was in my 20’s I was challenged to question and search, to seek out what is real and valid, to discern those concepts which are not. Nothing else matters. Only truth---absolute truth--will stand and hold up, not only under the test of time in the circumstances of everyday life but throughout eternity. So much of what I once believed fell away as it was replaced with truth. I am now in my 70's, and it is over fifty years later--I continue daily in that quest.

A friend once shared a pearl, one I’ve never forgotten:  “You can believe whatever you want.  You can believe with all your heart that the moon is made of blue cheese, but that doesn’t make it so.”

And so that Saturday afternoon conversation left me with a question, one that is applicable to each and every one of us: What if?  What if one's beliefs are just empty words--nothing more, nothing less?  What if they are fallacies? What if they are only what "I believe," with no correlation to anything that is true? What if they are in the same category of believing the moon is made of blue cheese? It is an important question worthy of consideration.

Personally, I know how I want to live. I want my life to be built on truth rather than on the dogma of man, the ever fluid positions of science, or a personal "belief." It is the difference between building on sand and building on a solid rock. 

My challenge to you is to question, to search and seek all that is true. Truth can only be found by going to the One who is truth--Almighty God.

What if?

 

"Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; 

knock, and the door will be opened for you."

Matthew 7:7

"Seek the Lord while he may be found, call

upon him while he is near."

Isaiah 55:6