It’s a fact, but is it truth?

It's a fact

We like to talk about facts in our culture.

“Face the facts”
“As a matter of fact”
“The facts of life”

They all seem to indicate that if something is a fact, it must be true.

But that’s not true, and scientific fact finders will be the first to tell us that. A fact needs to be linked with other indicators that are real, i.e. exist, before it can be verified as truth.

But most of the time, we seem to think that if something is a fact, then it must be the truth.

Does the sun rise?

For example, it’s a fact that the sun rises every morning, right?

But that’s only what we perceive with our eyes. It is only partial knowledge, that which is witnessed by our position as a being standing on earth at dawn, and watching the brilliant colours change in the sky as we slowly see the sun peeking over the horizon.

The truth is that the earth rotates, and in its rotation, part of it is illuminated by the sun, and part of it is in shadow. The interim period where the earth’s rotation takes a section of the earth from shadow into the light is what we call the “sun rising”.

So is it a fact that the sun rises? Yes
But is it the truth?

But what is truth?

Sometimes, we can speak a fact into being the truth. As a mother with a small son, I see that almost every time I talk to my son. The words I speak influence him into believing that what I am saying is true, even though there is no evidence for it yet.

Let me illustrate this. Even before Hanan started taking guitar lessons, we told him about what a musical genius he was. His dad encouraged him to listen to and sing all kinds of music and I kept telling him what a great musician he could be.

When Hanan picked up the guitar for the first time, it never crossed his mind that he wouldn’t be able to master it. Within weeks, he learned chords that took me, in my teens, weeks to get even the fingering right. Even his guitar teacher was amazed at how quickly he picked it up.

Now here are the facts:
- Hanan has heard music before and can sing
- He may have musical genes he inherited from the father


But nothing there says that he is a good intuitive musician. It’s what we wanted for him, and we spoke it to him till he believed it enough and it came to pass.

***
Why are we sick?

The reason for this sermonette on fact and truth is this – my mother just started medication for diabetes last week. And when did she decide she had diabetes? Some time in March.

In March, she started complaining about how she is getting old (fact) and is not going to be as healthy as she used to.

Me: Why do you say that?

Mum: I feel tired after work, lethargic, don’t feel like doing anything after that (fact).

Me (laughing): Ma, I feel like that after work too. Maybe your body is just telling you to take it easy, that you aren't as new as you used to be.

Mum: No lah, I think I need to get tested for diabetes.

Me: Why do you think you have diabetes?

Mum: My mother had diabetes what, very strong family history (fact). Anyway this is the age lah, where all these things happen.

Me: ……

Her facts may have been correct, but do they mean that she should also have the disease because of all those reasons?

Every month after that, my mother went to test her blood sugar. All the time confessing how she is getting old, and has a history of the disease, and its time for something like that to happen. For 3 months, the doctors told her that she had a normal reading.

But my mother was adamant something was wrong. She went to different doctors and finally found one that could tell her that her blood sugar was high (although the reading was the same as it was with the other doctors). And finally it got high enough, and she was put on medication for diabetes.

Now reading this account, do you get a sense that she almost wanted to get the illness? That she went out of her way to procure the diagnosis and succumb to the odds? That’s how I felt, watching her go through this thing.

Now when she whines about not being able to eat chocolate anymore, or how much she loves bread and jam, and can’t have it, I don’t know how to react. I know she wants my sympathy, but I can’t give it because I saw how she sought the sickness in the first place.

The Healer

And I am angry. That I know that she doesn’t need to be sick, and I know she doesn’t have to accept the symptoms, but she wants to be sick. And I am frustrated because I know Who can heal her, but she doesn’t want to know Him.

And I understand why Jesus, toward the end of His life, looked at the city of Jerusalem and said, with tears in his eyes and pain in his heart,

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

Matthew 23:37

There is a Healer, who does not want us to be sick. He said He is the Way, the TRUTH and the life. And He wants to gather you to Himself, Ma.

Are you willing?