What is Truth?

In an Internet discussion room for poets and writers, someone recently asked, “What is poetic truth?” Since members come from various countries and backgrounds, the answers varied too, reminding me that what's true in your or my personal experiences might not speak for every reader. For example, my Christian writing life in rural FL does not offer the same day-to-day “reality” that people deal with, say, in New York City or Alaska or China.

Despite the potentially countless variations, the truth is, we all have the same basic need for water, food, shelter, and love.

We all bleed. We all have the same basic body parts – and so does the Body of Christ.

As I considered the question of truth, poetic or otherwise, what especially came to mind was Pontius Pilate's timeless question: "What is truth?" According to chapter 18 of the Gospel of John, Jesus told Pilate, “You rightly say I Am King, and for this cause I was born. For this cause I came into the world that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth will hear My voice.”

At that point Pilate asked his infamous question, “What is truth?” But then as soon as he had posed what he apparently considered to be an unanswerable or rhetorical question, he immediately went back to the religious leaders and said, “I find no fault in Him (Jesus.)"

Do we?

If we find fault with other Christians in our own church or other denominations, does that not also find fault with the Body of Christ?

And what about my personal preferences or individual needs? Does my reality as a toe or fingernail of Jesus show the same perspective as seen from someone else’s muscle-bound shoulders or perked ears or eyes that don’t need my glasses to correct myopia?

What is reality?

What is truth?

At some point, each of us will answer Pilate's question in a way that satisfies us. And – from that central truth we accept for ourselves – our lives, actions, choices, ways of processing information, ways of living, and ways of writing – will extend out as spokes (pun intended.) The words we speak and write and act upon will, like spokes in a wheel, connect us back to Jesus Christ as our center hub – the Central Truth in our lives.

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© 2012, Mary Harwell Sayler. God bless your sharing these words with people in your church or on your blog, and thank you for letting people know where you found them. For brief blog articles on a variety of Bible topics, see Blogs by Mary – and pass them on!
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And may the loving heart of the loving Christ – Who resides at the heart of our God and Father of Love – become the center point of all truths that extend out from us in our poems, prayers, writings, and every word spoken in Jesus’ Name.

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