Your own truth.
Two quick thoughts about “your truth”:
1. World War I was fought in large part because the rulership of Germany believed it was their rightful turn to be the dominant nation state in Europe and the world. The Nazi party rose to power later largely on the momentum generated from the sentiment that Germany had been wrongly denied the opportunity they had fought a war to earn, that they had been betrayed by the Jewish population within their own country and that they had been cheated by an inept and corrupt ruling class. They bought into Darwin, Nietzsche and Hegel. They truly saw the Jews, Poles and Slavs as obstacles not only to German ascendancy, but to human progress and evolution, as well. They saw Christianity as a weak and irrelevant religion, seeking instead to return to a Teutonic paganism that would empower them to take their rightful place in the world.
They really believed this. They killed and conquered and died for this idea. It was their truth.
2. Consider this thought experiment. Suppose you started to feel pain in your chest and extremities along with the onset of a wicked headache. You get someone to take you to the hospital as you focus on breathing and staying calm, convinced that you are having a heart attack. If, once the doctors run their full slate of tests and exams, they return to you and say that what you’re experiencing is not, in fact, a heart attack, but rather a panic attack, you have one of two choices. You could believe the analysis and learned prognosis of the medical professionals, or you could insist that your truth is the right one and demand that they treat you as if you were having a heart attack. If they were to hit you with the defibrillator paddles upon your insistence, however, they could easily kill instead of heal you.
“My truth.”
“Your truth.”
“Our truth.”
All of these things only matter if they correspond with THE truth.
If we insist on looking at the world as if truth was relative to each individual, then we can no longer argue that Hitler was wrong. We might disagree with him vehemently (his truth might not be our truth), but we can only logically conclude that the reason his worldview didn’t come to dominate the rest of civilization was not that he was wrong about things or deeply evil, but simply that he lost.
Likewise, there come times when our truth clashes directly with THE truth and if we don’t submit to what is actually true, over and above our own preconceived notions or desires, what results may be catastrophic for us.
One of the greatest mistakes we can make as human beings is to decide that we are the center of our own worlds, that we are incapable of lying to ourselves, that our preferences necessarily equate to what’s best for us and that what feels natural must be what’s good.
Submission to higher authority is the wisest course of action we can choose to take. Admission that we don’t know what’s best for us, that we are stained and corrupted both by our very nature and the world around us, and that we are children, not knowing when to go out or come in, is the safest, healthiest, most self-improving decision we can probably make.
Now, we must center all of this deference in the right place, of course. But how to get safe is much easier to figure out once you admit that you’re actually in danger.
Our problem is that the greatest danger we face is the one posed by our own thoughts, feelings and desires. Each person is their own worst enemy.
Just another reason to bow the knee to someone else.
Reject any and all notions of “your truth.” Instead, dedicate your life to finding and following THE truth.
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“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” - John 8:31-32