Gift

A short one for a significant day.

Many of my friends took a task to write a blog titled "One Thing."  The idea was to identify the one thing that drives you as a person, the one thing that takes priority over all other things.  The question is interesting.  What is the one thing that will keep you going when everything else falls apart?

Today reminds me of my own life and that, regardless of whether or not I have realized it or not, there is one reason I live, One Thing that keeps me going.

And that one thing is the Truth.

From the ignorance of being a child, to bitter moral depravity, to the rabbit trail I find myself on, I have always, in some way or another, wanted the Truth.  The Truth about life, the Truth about myself, the Truth about existence.  My ultimate fear is not finding the Truth to be inconvenient, but being fooled into the lie.  When I finally go, I hope for nothing more than to be known as someone who lived the Truth, no matter how uncomfortable it was.

So what does this say about the nature of Truth?  In the world we live in, the Truth is a naughty word and an improper abdication of the right of everyone to determine their own independence.  But my question will always be, what effect does this have on the truth?  Does your level of comfort with an idea change its veracity in any way?  Can any hair change its color by your will alone?

The more I live, the more I start to realize that my emotions do not and never will have any impact on this terrible, amazing thing called the Truth, which makes the search for it all the more paramount for the existence of every human being: as I have said thousands of times, I believe more than anything that more than any responsibility that mankind holds, the responsibility to the Truth is the most important.

Today, I'm reflecting on the Truth that I find.  That the Truth itself became flesh.  That the Truth did not come with power, but with humility.  Was not born in a palace, but in a trough.  Accompanied not by celestial armies, but by farm animals.  Exalted not by noblemen, but by shepherds.  The friend of fishermen, prostitutes, tax collectors, and foreigners.  Blesser of the meek, healer of the broken.  The Truth knew all, yet broke not a reed; saw all but uplifted the unworthy.  The One who saw us all for the filth we were, yet submitted to death; dying for its redemption, and rising for its invalidation.

Today, more than any other day, we celebrate the glorious Truth that undermines everything we know about power structures, that flips the world upside down in a terrifying and unbelievable way.  A way that makes rulers shake and mobilize the lowest of people to hope and love.  If we accept this to be true, than nothing is what it seems, and there truly is hope in the gutter, and love for the unloved.  It changes the nature of existence in a way that leaves many uncomfortable, but cannot leave anyone unchanged.

If we accept that God can come as a baby in a manger, can we ever be the same?

Today, we celebrate gifts, and I want nothing more than to live for the most important gift of all, regardless of its consequences: the Truth.

The painful, glorious Truth.  And the Truth will set you free.

Merry Christmas.
  
~Jared