By Chris WittsMonday 7 Nov 2016Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 3 minutes
The truth from man’s perspective can be a varied thing! But from God’s perspective there is no shadow of turning. Most of us can sympathise with the fellow who received a call from his wife just as she was about to fly home from Europe. “How’s my cat?”, she asked. “Dead.” “Oh, honey, don’t be so honest. Why didn’t you break the news to me slowly? You’ve ruined my trip.”
“What do you mean?” “You could have told me he was on the roof. And when I called you from Paris, you could have told me he was acting sluggish. Then when I called from London, you could have said he was sick, and when I called you from New York, you could have said he was at the vet. Then, when I arrived home, you could have said he was dead.” The husband had never been exposed to such protocol but was willing to learn. “OK,” he said. “I’ll do better next time.” “By the way,” she asked, “how’s mum?” There was a long silence, then he replied, “Uh, she’s on the roof.” Telling the truth can sometimes be uncomfortable!
Man has always asked, “What is truth?” It’s the big question to ask—this search for freedom is nothing new. The movie Braveheart is about William Wallace and Scotland’s fight for freedom from the cruel rule of the English king. Wallace had many victories over the English but in the end, a friend betrayed him. The king by then was very old and frail and dying but was determined not merely to kill Wallace but to have him beg for mercy and a quick death. Just before Wallace died, he mustered all of his remaining strength and screamed out “Freedom!”, its sound penetrating the air and reaching the ears of the dying king. As we read history books, we are overwhelmed with the fact that the search for freedom is behind so many wars, so many deaths, and so many struggles.
Thousands of refugees have fled countries to come to Australia and other peace-loving countries. We have heard the tragic stories. In one newspaper there was the photo of three little girls who had drowned. They were members of a group of people trying to get to Australia in a leaky old fishing boat that was crowded with something like 350 refugees. The boat had sunk somewhere near Indonesia and the three children were unable to hang on to their mother, and like many others on that boat, they drowned. The paper reported how the mother had paid a huge amount of money in order to make this journey from Iran.
Why do people risk everything, even their lives to make this kind of journey? The answer is simple: freedom.
Freedom from persecution and oppressive governments, freedom from fear and war, freedom to be educated and to work, freedom to live in safety. What they did was dangerous but these people were desperate to go to a place where they could bring up their children in freedom and peace. If we were in their shoes, I would guess we too would be prepared to do anything to get our families to a place of freedom. You can imagine how disappointed we would feel, if we were confined to a refugee camp after coming so far.
We live in a peaceful and freedom-loving country. Some people have come to this country because of freedom. We have seen boatloads of people risk their lives trying to get to our country because they want that kind of freedom they have only dreamt about.
In the Bible Jesus was on trial for his life. He faced Pilate. Pilate replied, “You are a king then?” “You say that I am a king, and you are right,” Jesus said. “I was born for that purpose. And I came to bring truth to the world. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.” 38 “What is truth?” (John 18:37-38)
(To be continued in The Truth Shall Set You Free – Part 2)