One of my favorite words in the English language is ponder. One dictionary defines it to mean “to think or consider – especially quietly, soberly, and deeply.” I like to think of pondering as mental cud-chewing. I especially enjoy spending time thinking as deeply as my limited brain can about matters of faith, life, truth, and biblical living. Over the years, one of the topics that has generated a great deal of thinking for me is what makes people tick – individually and collectively. Important topics for my ponderings have included how peoples’ worldviews and attitudes towards truth impact their living. Matters of how they think and behave, what their core values are, where they derive their personal identities, what those identities are, what their sense of personal purpose for living is, and, most importantly, from where or whom that purpose is derived, have been the focus of my reflections.
In recent months my pondering has been focused on those in our American culture whose worldviews and understanding of truth have led them to conclusions and behaviors that cause many of the rest of us to shake our heads in disbelief regarding what we are hearing and seeing around us. Three examples: (1) the blitzkrieg-like normalization of transgenderism, (2) the belief that biology no longer is a determining factor in what determines gender, let alone the determining factor, and (3) the passionate determination to indoctrinate our nation’s children to their positions. How did we get here, and especially how did we get here so fast?
Pondering what got us where we are today fueled my attraction to a helpful book written by Carl R. Trueman entitled Strange New World. Trueman’s purpose in writing the book was, in my words, to explain the pieces of dry psychological, technological, and philosophical tinder that needed to already be in place in our culture to enable the acceptance of such radical changes to spread like wildfire once ignited. Of the several contributing factors he cites, one in particular caught my attention. Trueman describes it this way: “the granting of decisive authority to inner feelings” by which feelings are considered “the nonnegotiable reality to which all external realities must be made to conform.” That is his way of saying that for many in our culture, feelings rule. Whatever his feelings say is reality, for him, it is reality. For a person adopting this position, once adopted, his goal then becomes to do whatever is necessary to make his outward reality match what he feels his inward reality to be.
Stop for a moment and ponder the practical impact of that position. First, it means that for them, truth is no longer that which conforms with reality. Thus, for them there is no such thing as absolute truth. Additionally, not even the viewpoint that perception is reality is valid. Thus, not even such a thing as perceived truth is valid. For them, only feelings are the ultimate reality. Therefore, only feelings are the ultimate determiner of truth. That means those who grant decisive authority to their feelings are trusting their feelings to help them successfully navigate the broken world in which we live. It means that such things as their decision making, moral judgments about what is right and wrong, and the provision of discernment and wisdom needed for their lives is founded on and grounded in emotional truth that is fragile and can change on a whim. That’s quite a risk.
Thinking about the risk a person takes by building his foundation of truth on something as fragile as his feelings reminds me of a story Jesus told at the conclusion of what is commonly referred to as His Sermon on the Mount. His sermon contains practical, yet radical, teachings on how to live successfully in a world that is broken like ours. He said, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them is like a wise man who built his house upon the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like the foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it” (Matthew 7:24-27 ESV).
To build one’s life on the foundation of emotional truth based on feelings qualifies as the depth of foolishness. In contrast, to build one’s life on the foundation of absolute truth based on the words of the Creator God who made us is the height of wisdom.
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