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Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6
Reflect
One year when I lived in Atlanta I volunteered to help the political campaign of a prominent local politician who was running for reelection. Because he had such a high profile, his campaign events got a lot of media attention. So when he had a bus tour through his district, the lead political reporter from one of the major news networks was there to report on any developments.
At some point, a guy I had met that day came down and sat next to me, shaking his head in disbelief. I asked him what was wrong, and he told me. At the time, Congress had passed a new budget that revised its spending in various areas. Many of them reported these as “cuts,” even though the spending wasn’t being cut. They just weren’t going to increase spending by as much as previously planned. This man told me, “I was up on the top deck of the bus with (the reporter) and asked him why he was reporting the spending cuts instead of a reduction in the increase. And he said, ‘I think they are cuts,’ but I said that they couldn’t be cuts because the spending was going up. He said, ‘That’s not how I see it.'”
The next part of the conversation stunned me. “I told him, ‘That’s simply not true,'” the man continued. “He told me, ‘I’m proud to say that there is no longer any objective truth in the media. All truth is subjective.’ So I said, ‘So I might not be standing with you here on this bus in Atlanta, wearing blue jeans and a blue jean jacket.’ And he said, ‘It depends on who you ask.'”
That conversation has irked me for more than 20 years because it reveals a common frustration many of us have with the media. Instead of reporting facts, they tend to report their “truth,” which might not align with reality or the facts. But the more I think about it, this isn’t a new thing. Just before he was sentenced to death, Jesus told Pontius Pilate that he was sent to “bear witness to the truth,” to which Pilate replied, “What is truth?” We don’t know the context of his question. It could have been a cynical, “Well what’s really true anymore.” Or it could have been an honest probe of Jesus asking, “Tell me, what does truth mean?” But it’s clear that Pilate struggled with truth more than 2,000 years ago. And people are still struggling with it today.
It’s hard to know what’s real and not real. We see and hear things that seem believable only to find that we’ve been fooled. Everyone seems to have their own “truth” now, which is why I rely mainly on facts, and even that’s not a 100 percent guarantee. The only thing I’ve found that is perpetually reliable is Jesus. When Jesus’s disciples were confused, He told them that “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6a) Jesus is the path we follow. He is the light that directs us to what’s real and true. And faith in Him is the only real life that I can imagine. That’s why so many people struggle with truth. They haven’t personally met Jesus yet, so they’re grasping at whatever truth they can define for themselves. That must be such a desperate existence.
Today, make sure you know what’s real and true. Make sure that you align yourself with the Word and ways of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and that you follow His path as closely as possible. In the midst of fear and confusion, pray for guidance so that you may see through the falsehoods and to a truth that is grounded in Him.
Reflection copyright © 2025 Doug DeBolt.
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
