The Truth

Something has been bothering me for a while and I need to get it off my chest.

Several weeks ago I made a comment on Twitter. I had just bought a chain saw and when I got home I read the instructions (yes, I did that before actually starting it up) and in the instructions was a warning not to use a gasoline and ethanol mix or it would damage the saw and possibly void the warranty. Being the person that I am, I went on Twitter and said something to the effect of  “Where in Tulsa can you get pure gasoline? Maybe when the saw falls apart Obama will buy me a new one”. I heard later that somebody who read my Tweet was extremely upset with me and said that I “just didn’t have all the facts”.  ?

The only fact that I was aware of was that if I used a gas/ethanol mixture in my brand new saw it would fall apart. I questioned where a person could buy pure gasoline and speculated as to whether or not (99.9% sure NOT) Mr. Obama would do a cash-for-clunkers-style buy-back of my saw. After all, I don’t have any control of what kind of fuel is available to me; that has been taken over by Washington. Please note that at NO TIME did I blame Mr. Obama for that. He hasn’t changed that mandate and DOES want to up the ratio to a higher level of ethanol, but I clearly do not hold him accountable for initiating that fiasco. Which left me not only mystified, but also a bit mad; just what “facts” did I have wrong?

At that point I started thinking about (among other things) what kind of society we have become. Facts and truth are what we want them to be. Everybody – myself included – has a conditional bias that we one way or another succumb to. As much as we try to be objective, it seems that we all tend to only listen to the “truth” and “facts” that back up what we believe to be true. I try to listen to both sides of most arguments, and I do try to be objective. I don’t use Fox (or any other news network) as my only source of information. I try to search out as many sources on a given subject as I can. But in the end, to be honest, unless there is overwhelming evidence on one side or the other, I tend to gravitate back to what I see as my truth. I doubt that I am very much different than anybody else. In fact, from what I have seen in the last few years, that seems to be the norm.

Which brings me to The Truth.

My son (who is a junior in college) has fallen into the ecumenical trap of “all paths lead to god” that so many have fallen for. “Allah is the same as the Christian or Jewish God” seems to be in fashion. (I wonder if Muslims really feel that way or it is “Christians” that that are trying to justify their lack of real commitment to Christ?). I hear a lot of criticism against Christianity, “Who gives them the exclusive claim to having the truth? Why can’t (fill in the blank) religion be just as true? Who says that there isn’t some bit of truth in all religions?” And on and on. (Personally, I don’t think that I would want to be part of a mish-mash religion that picks and chooses what it sees as truth, depending on the political or sociological wind that is blowing that particular day).

I am reading a fascinating book, “Jesus Among Other Gods” by Ravi Zacharias.  Jesus said “I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life.” Zacharias points out that Jesus is the ONLY one that IS the message. Mohammad doesn’t transform you, you transform yourself through the teachings of the Koran; Buddah doesn’t deliver you, it is his Noble Truths that instruct you. Zacharias goes on down the list of religious leaders; each leader has a method or message that is meant to transform. He emphasizes that it is not the leader that is the transforming power, it is the person receiving the message and the message itself that transforms. He further points out that these leaders acknowledge that they themselves have no power to transform people. Jesus is the only one who IS the transforming message. He is the one who changes us; we cannot change ourselves by listening to a message or following a method or teaching. He transforms us and we follow Him out of love for Him and our desire to be IN the Truth (not fear or the promise of some future reward). He never changes – He is the same as He was yesterday and will be tomorrow. His truth is The truth.

What It’s About

As in why am I doing this.

First off, the name. With the way things are going in this country, and the world for that matter, there are several meanings to this blog name. Number one, it seems like there is more and more emphasis in controlling the internet. The Internet Czar wants to make it more accessible to everyone. Really? who is it that doesn’t have access to the Internet? Something else is up there. The second meaning; I feel like our Country’s freedom of speech is in serious jeopardy. If you don’t think so then criticize our President. That is “hate speech” (whatever that is). Don’t like unions? Well, then you obviously are against workers rights and we’ll either shout you down or shut you up. Do you like unions? Oh, then you can say whatever you want. Not to mention what happens when you bring up religion. You get the idea.

Okay, so that is basically what this blog is about; speaking my mind. Isn’t that what a blog is supposed to be about? If nobody’s reading, fine. At least I get to vent and say whatever I want. So far, it is still a free country. If anybody does see this, well great.

I started out the morning with a couple of thoughts that I really wanted to put down, but it took longer than anticipated to get this blog started. I hope that I can get back to it while the ideas are still in mind. If not, well then I’m sure that I’ll think of something else to say.

Liberae sunt nostrae cogitationes