“You can’t handle the truth.” (Col. Jessup in ‘A Few Good Men)

“Jesus then said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”’ (John 8: 31,32)

“because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4: 18).

I have an acquaintance who has built a ‘house of cards’ out of their life.  Something that I never understood because they are a person who on the surface looks like life should be easy for them; they’re smart, attractive, financially secure and quite musical.  And truthfully, can be charming and lovely to people around them.

But despite all of this, they have represented themselves to the world as far ‘more’; far smarter, far more accomplished, and having done far more ‘things’ than they actually have.

I have found this incredibly hard to deal with.  I’m a little obsessed with what I’ve considered “truth-telling”, partly based on some experiences with trauma and my recovery from these events requiring me to be honest about what had happened to me.  So, when my I figured out that this acquaintance had been…..well ‘Lying’ seems to be to harsh a word – but certainly misrepresenting themselves and their reality I was really disappointed and angry.

And to be honest, I’m still very disappointed.  Far less angry, though.

I was telling I close friend of mine about this whole experience and she said, quite pointedly to me, two things that cut fairly close to a nerve.  The first thing was “Usually, people get most upset with things that they observe in others that are things they don’t like about themselves”.  Ummmm…..Ouch….But yet, she was right.  I have to work VERY hard on honesty.  Its sometimes easier to me to fluff things up or pretend I had done a little more than I actually had than to share the accolades and applause with someone else.  You know, when you recount a story of an accomplishment, and somehow a group effort becomes a personal accomplishment?

The second thing she said to me was:   “you are OBSESSED with truth-telling, Lynne.  Truth is very different from data or a factual recounting of the world.  Truth is story, is interpretation, and always strays from actuality. “.  Again she was right.  There’s a joke that my friends have about me that I don’t have patience for people’s story-telling, and I’m always saying “just the facts, man.  Just give me the facts!”.

Remember the parable about the six blind men and the elephant?  Well – that’s what she was trying to get at.

Last week, when I was in class, we were talking a lot about listening to people’s ‘stories’.  Listening not so much to gather data, or actuality, but instead to be gathering ‘truth’ fully with people’s interpretation of the experiences.  Our full understanding of our experiences had less to do with finding out facts, and far more to do with finding out, well…

Faith.  Those pesky things that are unseen.  This class made me realize that my obsession with ‘facts’ and my lack of tolerance for people’s stories has meant that I have missed a whole lot of people’s lives and identities.  We are people with stories.  We are people with interpretation and nuance.  We are much more than the data that we have reduced our lives to.

Our scriptures are story.  They were never meant to anything but story.  Many of them were told from generation to generation and from group to group for many reasons:  to entertain, to direct, to inspire.  We keep trying to turn our faith ‘story’ into faith ‘data’; and use it as evidence of fact, of history and of science.  But, it was never intended to be any of that.  It was intended to be more than that.  It was intended to be.

Truth.

Truth in the biggest and broadest sense of the word.

Truth that is not data because its more than data.

Truth that is not history because it transcends history.

Truth that is story.  Truth that is integrity.  Truth that is our faith.

So, my dear Bethel friends, I hope you’ll all join me in just listening to people’s stories.   Even if they grate at you because you know they are stretching the facts and playing havoc with reality.  Because there is truth in their stories, and maybe it will mean that you will learn something that transcends what we have here on earth, and point our way to eternity.

Blessings today, and remember you are loved; even when you don’t give me the facts! (And call me out when I don’t listen.  I give you all this permission now!)

~Rev. Lynne