Knowing someone’s words are true can be difficult. Experience suggests something quite different. Logic walks in a different direction. Other character indicators, friends, values, and attitude, tell a different story. In the end it is a judgment based on a combination of everything. Things I find that helps are when an independent party confirms and the original witness is speaking on another’s account. This foundation is always based on at least three; the subject, objective witness, and someone to verify the words of the witness.
It is always interesting to watch politicians and sports figures professing to believe in family values. Sadly many of them fail over time. Some fail even as they testify. It is a good think others champion these values because there is little veracity linking the rhetoric, actions, and experience. Yet the mix signals cause confusion even among the strong. Are the values we say are important really important? Do we believe that the values we were taught as children something we can ignore as we get older.
The questions and implications are profound. Do our words link with our relationships? Do our stories match our actions and activities? Is the witness we have in the spotlight the same as we carry in the silence of our behavior alone?
Everyone naturally doubts. As Jesus testified, others doubted the veracity of his words. It was as nothing in the truth and reality pictured was real.
“If I were simply speaking on my own account, it would be an empty, self-serving witness. But an independent witness confirms me, the most reliable Witness of all.” (John 5.31, 32)
Yes the three criteria were met. Jesus spoke of God, others could testify of his witness; God, Jesus, and the witness of those around Jesus.
I believe in active compassion, mercy, and unconditional acceptance. I believe in love, full and abundant. I wonder if I am talking of God or my own conditional actions. I wonder if others could confirm my story. Today is an opportunity to affirm and confirm the veracity of God’s story in me.
