Separating the truth from the story

The truth doesn’t change, as much as we might hope that it would. But stories change all the time. Truth is absolute but the story is uniquely crafted and every human being has one. So when something concrete collides with something that vacillates it’s never a proper mix. And I’m learning that I still expect truth and story to combine and when it doesn’t, I’m disappointed.

All around the United States today, students of all sorts gathered around school flagpoles to pray. They stood there singing more loudly than I expected and prayed aloud when called upon do so. These are the stories colliding with truth and these stories have some severe imperfections. Probably the chiefest of all the imperfect was the faculty who joined the circle to pray. I was there with my baggage along with several other teachers and administrators who have years of experience trying to bend the truth of Christian faith to our will. I’m a story complete with lies, hedonism and conceit. If I didn’t know better I’d say standing around the flagpole makes me, my colleagues and the students the world’s greatest contingent of hypocrites. But I know better.

What I know is that droves of students, faculty and staff weren’t in those circles all over the nation and there’s a few reasons why. My own severely mired past brings me to a place of humble curiosity that makes me wonder, “Why aren’t more people around this pole praying for families, school, government, troops, etc.?” My speculations lead me to the “New Kid on the Block” syndrome. You know. A new kid shows up and everybody thinks that he thinks he’s better than everyone else. “He doesn’t dress act like us. Who does he think he is?” But I’m probably being juvenile. If I were outside the circle, which I’ve been on many occasions, I’d think, “There’s no way I belong with those people…with THOSE people…with THOSE people. Echo.

I couldn’t help but think of the kids on the outside of the circle  as I prayed for the ones who were part of it. At the heart of my journey of Faith was a crossroads at which I had to separate the humanness of humans from the truth. Truth is easy to grasp because it bears down pretty hard. I struggle with being the truth and that’s why my story doesn’t always mix well with it. One thing I know, however, is that if I’m brave enough to mix my story with truth, one of the two is bound to change. My money is on the story.