What Is Truth?

Truth is usually thought of as "verifiable facts". Truth is something that can be examined, tested and proven to be well... true. The Gospel says Jesus is Truth. Anyone who has been a Christian for any length of time has heard their preacher say "Truth is a person... Jesus."

OK. Even I said that 30 years ago. No one ever asked me, "So... what does that mean?"
Its a good thing because I couldn't have told them what it means. It just sounds good, and, after all it IS "Bible".

So, what DOES it mean? I think I've finally discovered it.

"Truth" is aleithei (depends on how you Anglicize the Greek). It is actually what is called an "alpha privative", meaning you put an "a" in front of something and it makes it a "negative". Like "immortal" in Greek is actually "a-death", without death. I looked up the root of "truth" in Lidell and Scott Greek Lexicon, and it is "leithei". The first meaning of "leithei" is "forgetfullness" or "forgetting", the second meaning is "a place of oblivion in the lower world". So Truth, A-leithei, is "not forgottenness", or "not oblivion".

When I read this I immediately thought of Psalm 88 which I have read in Matins every Sunday for the past 10 years. It is a Psalm of the experience of hades, of forsakenness, of being abandoned by God: "Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deep...Shall Thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave, or thy faithfulness in that destruction? Shall Thy wonders be known in the dark, and Thy righteousness in the land of forgetfullness?...Lover and friend hast Thou put far from me and my aquaintence into darkness..."

Truth is the antithesis of that experience. Truth saves us, but from what and how? Truth is Christ. Christ unites us to God in whom there is no darkness. God is light. Christ unites is to God in whom we fully know and are fully known, not forgotten. Christ unites us to God in whom we have life, His Spirit gives life and abundantly, not death and destruction. Christ unites us to God in whom we are healed (in Greek the root meaning of salvation is "healing"). Christ unites us to all humanity and creation in perfect union in His body, lovers and friends are joined to us in the perfect love of the Trinity.

Truth is a Person. Truth is Christ, the God-man who united our fallen nature to the nature of God in His person. The Spirit of Truth unites the human being to Christ in whom are all the blessings of union, communion, intimacy, knowledge, and love. Apart from Truth, there is only oblivion, corruption, despair, illusion, lies and forgottenness. He is the Truth. He is not merely an empirical "fact", He is a Savior.

What 50,000.00 Buys Your Kid

We got an emergency call on Wednesday. The custom cabinet shop had bought a broken down "Tuff Shed" for 700.00 and had to have it delivered as a finished play house on Saturday for an 8 year old's birthday party on Sunday. They were setting up the carnival on the estate and there would be 50 kids there. We got there on Thursday afternoon after the windows and exterior moldings were put on and began priming everything. We met the designer at 4:30pm and chose paint colors and made it to the paint store before they closed.

We returned Friday morning at dawn. This is the front of the shed with the new patio roof being intalled. We painted everything as it was being built or installed. I had to "cut in" straight lines on all the moldings with people walking on the roof and inside the shed. It is like trying to paint a straight line in an earthquake.

They delivered the front porch railing to us at 6:30pm to be painted.


The exterior was 75% done, the interior was just being started. It is dusk and we have to deliver the playhouse at 7:00am tomorrow. This is the owner of the cabinet shop and his foreman sweating.


We put a fan on to dry the paint on the inside faster. It is 10:30pm. and we put the final coat on the interior so the fabric installers can install the wall treatments at 4:30am.



We show up at the shop at 6am to final touch up then head to the estate to meet the shed. We are only allowed on this part of the 10 acre estate and 30,000 square foot house. This is the kids play area off of the play room. We don't venture into any other part of the yard because of the 15 person security staff and cameras constantly monitoring us.



TUFF SHED delivers the not so tuff shed...


Unloading from the trailer....Thomas and Jeremy on the left, and me (taking the picture) well, we're painters. That thing weighs much more than a paintbrush.



The back side of the playhouse.



The front porch is installed, and landscaping goes in...


Almost finished. The toys, furniture, etc. are being delivered and put inside. We're done with the touch up and head home. Happy birthday!

Polyticks

So, I called my friend who is VERY politically active.
"H", I said, "This is Steve, I need some political advice!"
"WHAT??? Who is this really??"
"No, its me...I'm at the polls..."
"Who is this???"
"Really, its me, Steve. So I'm here and there's all these signs on the sidewalk out front. One says "VOTE AQUI"... and I don't see anyone named "AQUI" on the ballot, what do you know about this guy?"
And I hang up.

Really, I've never voted. The lesser of two evils is still evil. Yeah, we
"get to vote" for our evils, but the beauty of the democratic system is one of them will be elected and neither will be grossly evil, just evil enough to be in politics.

So... I don't vote. And I don't bitch.
This blog is a political free zone.

Uhhhhhhh...

I'm so confused!