BUT THAT IS NOT TRUE

 

 

In today’s world you need to carry in your verbal toolbox the observation, “But that’s not true.”

 

Three weeks ago during the forest fires in BC a picture of the fire came up on the evening news. The viewer beside me asked, “Is that picture real?”?

 

This picture could h ave been the creation of AI (a computer generated picture) or it could be an actual photo of the forest fire.

 

We live in a deluge of information.  It is very possible that some of the TV programs that you watch are not real people. The actors, script and situations are all AI generated. The first tool we must bring to this flood of ideas, news stories and commentates from all sorts of people, “Is this actually true?”

 

You are not being rude or unkind if you question whether something is true. You are working to establish the truths of this particular event. 

 

There are people who chatter but never check out of what they are speaking is actually true. These are the ones who take offense when you ask them if what they have just said is actually a true fact or do they just have a need to talk?

 

Be the person who seeks to receive and truth and only pass on the truth to others. If you hear it in the media, question it. 

 

Survival in today’s world means we must become critical (i.e., truth seeking) in all things. 

 

To use a good winter image, be like the Inuit in the far north of Canada. They have grown up on the land and know the water and forest well. One southern man observed, watching how the Inuit men travel over the waterways in the early part of the winter. “Watch, they know the waters so well that they never run over thin ice. They never fall into the frozen lake. Their feet are so well educated not to step in the wrong patch of snow or ice.”

We live in a church that has a long history of working towards the truth. There were vicious verbal fights in the early church over the identity of Jesus. Finally in council it was defined that Jesus was true God and true man. And this was hammered out into the Nicene Creed. Today we use the shorter version, “The Apostles’ Creed.”

 

We are always working towards the truth.  In your daily life, be a truth-worker.

 

Be critical. Be sharp towards receiving the truth.

 

Be firm and honest. There are things that you will hear today that are not true. From time to time we will have to say, “But that is not true.”