The beauty of truth is that it needs no defense.
~ Makala Barnabas Doulos
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a slave being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
~ from Philippians 2
FLY envious Time, till thou run out thy race,
Call on the lazy leaden-stepping hours,
Whose speed is but the heavy Plummets pace;
And glut thy self with what thy womb devours,
Which is no more then what is false and vain,
And meerly mortal dross;
So little is our loss,
So little is thy gain.
For when as each thing bad thou hast entomb’d,
And last of all, thy greedy self consum’d,
Then long Eternity shall greet our bliss
With an individual kiss;
And Joy shall overtake us as a flood,
When every thing that is sincerely good
And perfectly divine,
With Truth, and Peace, and Love shall ever shine
About the supreme Throne
Of Him, t’whose happy-making sight alone,
When once our heav’nly-guided soul shall clime,
Then all this Earthy grosnes quit,
Attir’d with Stars, we shall for ever sit,
Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee O Time.
~ John Milton (1608-1674)
Oh beloved, it is true. There is something in us that wants to fight for the truth. And perhaps this is a good thing. But, there is also within us something that somehow wants to defend that which needs no defense. The truth is simply the truth.
The great lie being splattered all over us is that we still have to battle against the rages of time and machine and lie and change and sin and death. And it is so tempting to fight, as the people we love betray our confidence and trust in them. And even as they throw their words back at us in tantrums and revile us, and distort the truth, to maintain their own little fiefdoms of pride, we want to break through with the light of truth. We yearn deeply for their freedom.
However, in doing this, we miss something. They are already free to live whatever life they want to live. And so are we. It simply does not matter what people or the world throws at us. G_d has already highly exalted His Son and seated Him at His own right hand. And, in the same way, this mercy-drenched, and astoundingly gracious G_d has already placed us in the exact same place with His Son.
So, that even if a friend or lover hate us for speaking truth, we need not shy away. For the beauty of truth is it needs no defense – for it does not change – and has already won. Truth is simply that which conforms to reality as defined by G_d, and is therefore infinitely precious. So further, just as it would be silly for a light-bulb to dim itself because some squint at its beam; so it is foolish to yield to a lie when malice is heaped upon us for living in the truth. For we are free, and are already in eternity.
Can we see it? Time is the element that brings change and distortion to that which is true. Oh, it is not that the truth ever changes, but our perception of it – and our willingness to yield to it – morphs and waxes and wanes. And just as it waxes and wanes for us, others will go through the same changes.
And this is where is so vital to look to who we really already are. Through what Christ has done, we are already those who have eternally triumphed over death and chance and time. We, in Him, already own everything, and are completely accepted by our Beloved. So, those who belittle our lives of truth and revile the goodness within us will gain no purchase of condemnation against us in eternity – for these positions and spoils of victory are already in place, and are unchanged and unchanging and unchangeable.
As this fool of a writer has been given the ministry of being misunderstood, it has become the norm that many of those closest to him have rejected him. He has been called names and held in contempt, and even been hated. And while the pain of this truth touches my soul, i have learned a deeper Truth along the way. It simply does not matter how other people perceive you or treat you. Love covers a multitude of sins. And Truth abides.
Oh, would that we might simply Love people with courage, knowing that even if they spit in our face, even if they tell us our truth is meaningless, even if they revile us, even in they reject us – even if they lash out in us in violence – their actions are temporal; and thus swallowed up in the victory of the Cross.
The truth is incontrovertible; malice may attack it,
ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.
~Winston Churchill
