Does It Even Matter Anymore?
I was driving down the 210 Freeway the other day stuck in the state of unfettered joy that is Southern California rush hour traffic (don’t tell me you can’t relate). You know, the kind of traffic where texting while driving is probably legal; where you get the privilege of studying the nuances of any and all scratches, dents, or other blemishes in the cars around you; where your desire for listening to yet one more podcast about business, spiritual development, or anything else for that matter has died a slow and painful death; where all you want to do is move out to the prairie, learn a new dialect, and watch cows in the pasture.
And I don’t even like cows, which shows you how much I hate SoCal traffic.
And in the midst of my malaise, out of the corner of my eye flashed an electronic billboard cycling through various messages. You know, freeway entertainment at its best.
As it was displaying various ads for food, cars, and insurance, a new message popped up in plain black font over a yellow background:
“The Truth Doesn’t Matter Anymore”
It’s ideas that change the world
Who needs a podcast when we have such wisdom right before our very eyes! It was just what I needed at that moment—just the right thing to keep me engaged for the rest of the long drive home.
You see, I agree with that statement. Or, more accurately, I agree with exactly half of that statement.
Ideas are the engine of change; without the big ideas there would be no car to drive in, no electricity for the billboard, heck—no iPhone to ditch my podcasts with.
Without the big ideas there would be no democracy, no social enterprise, no pioneers of justice and social change.
But what role does “truth” play?
Does it no longer matter?
Clearly there are certain immutable truths that surround us every day. The sun rises when it chooses; a day has 24 hours; the planets revolve around the sun.
Most of humanity holds to deeper, moral “truths”, regardless of our position of faith: Don’t steal, don’t kill your neighbor, don’t run off with your friend’s wife.
And yet, that billboard rings so prophetic, so indicative of our current societal ethos. Why? Why is it that Truth doesn’t seem to matter anymore?
As a businessman, there are certain Truths that I live by every day: If I don’t love my customers, they will go somewhere else. If I don’t offer excellence in my product and customer service, my business won’t survive. If I let work possess me and neglect family time, eventually I won’t have a family to come home to.
I believe those Truths matter.
And as a Christian who believes we were created in God’s image (a God who is both wildly creative and Truth’s author), I believe we were designed to live out every big idea given to us. In that context of Truth.
Because God is a God of big ideas. It’s why we’re here in the first place. The cross and the resurrection balance that part inside every one of us that says that Truth doesn’t matter, that we don’t have to live by any standards other than those we choose, and envelops that position into the much greater Truth that we all are part of something much bigger than ourselves, that our lives do indeed have impact on others (for better or worse), and that what we do matters.
The Truth is, we were created in the image of a fiercely creative God who calls us to live out our big ideas. Because if we lean only on Truth exclusively, we turn inward and fail to serve others from our place of gifting. And if we neglect the Truth and rely only on ideas, we are tossed around like a ship without a rudder, and our ideas don’t move us in the direction of the greater good.
As humans, we are all given a sphere of influence, and we need to be bold enough to take a big idea and run with it, while also being bold enough to insist upon maintaining the Truth. With more and more of us doing that, I genuinely believe we can effect change, making our world and our relationships more dynamic, more loving, with more harmony and excitement.
So here’s to today. Here’s to impacting our spheres, courageously stepping into our big ideas, and being guided by a standard of Truth.