TRUTH in Troubled Times

John Maxwell once offered these words of wisdom, "A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way." We need this type of clarity in troubling times. Simple, straight forward direction to help us find our way. Wouldn’t life be so much easier if it was just a pathway through the forest with no obstacles, animals to devore us, no poison ivy to irritate us, and only beautiful flowers and cool breezes?

These are wonderful thoughts when faced with so many decisions, choices, and obstacles. I am getting weary of negative advertising, inconsiderate people, illegal and unfair situations surrounding me, the lack of clarity, inconsistencies piling up around me, and the list could go on and on. People are unkind, not very thoughtful, and even downright mean. We are cut off in traffic, they ride our bumpers and are quick to extend a part of the hand to express how upset they are.

Why? What is the cause of this growing trend? Are people (including myself) even aware of what they are doing and how it is impacting others? Has cruelty taken over so much that it has become common practice, or even the norm?

It seems as if sadness and meanness have become related, and they are now the norms of life. We are becoming more and more miserable. This misery is given as a root cause of our meanness. Our lives are not fulfilled, our jobs provide little satisfaction, and we seek outlets that are not healthy or good for us. ?This is not, thankfully, true of everyone, but it is becoming prevalent.

Here are some startling statistics I found recently in an article in The Atlantic…The percentage of people who say they don’t have close friends has increased fourfold since 1990. The share of Americans ages 25 to 54 who weren’t married or living with a romantic partner went up to 38 percent, from 29 percent in 1990. A record-high 25 percent of 40-year-old Americans?have never married. More than half of all Americans say that no one knows them well. The percentage of high-school students who report “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” shot up from 26 percent in 2009 to 44 percent in 2021.

In addition to these, the rising rates of depression, as well as the rising deaths of despair from drugs, alcohol, and suicide have been well publicized.?Hate crimes have risen to their highest level in 12 years. Murder rates continue to rise, as well as other types of crime.

Is there a way out, a direction to take, a pathway in the forest? Yes, if you have been following any of my articles you will expect the answer, I will offer…it is TRUTH!

It is not an overnight sensation or a magic pill; TRUTH takes time to be effective. It takes a commitment to change. A desire to do things differently, and it shows you what that means. Its greatest difficulty in implementing is getting people to believe, to accept, and to trust.

The reason we have so many troubles today is that people do not want to believe that there is OneTRUTH. They continue to search for others, to look within to their own “truth” or to others who are searching in similar ways. They find groups of people like themselves, who have similar traits, and join with their voices to demand their truths, with little satisfaction. They turn to violence, hate, disruption, and evil ways because their path does not provide answers, only more unanswered questions. And more troubling answers.

TRUTH is based on love. Truth is found by asking the right questions, by seeking TRUTH above everything else until it is revealed to you. “Then you will know the TRUTH, and the TRUTH will set you free.”

Here are some specific ways to seek and find TRUTH:

1.????? Ask questions, lots of questions. Seek meaning and purpose in your life. It is there, it is within all of us, but not fully understood.

2.????? Find and listen to people who have found TRUTH. Seek their help in finding TRUTH for yourself. Ask them questions.

3.????? Read about TRUTH as a way of discovering it for yourself. Seek guidance in this from the people you are surrounding yourself with, these people who have already found TRUTH.

4.????? Allow what you have learned to change your life. Accept and confess what you have done wrong in the past and commit to a new path.

5.????? When you accept the Spirit of TRUTH, you will be guided further into all the TRUTH.

6.????? Understand that the love that TRUTH reveals rejoices with the TRUTH.

There will still be challenging times and things that we do not fully understand or accept, but among it all there remains TRUTH! The OneTRUTH that changes everything! It is the clarity we seek in these challenging times.