Have you seen the meme of the two guys standing on either side of what could be a 6 or a 9? It’s great, isn’t it? It’s got such a deep meaning and helps you really understand that your perspective matters. In our deeply opinionated culture of not being fully educated and being sure we are right, this meme is so true to life. It just shows the idea that your truth and my truth may not be the same. And I think it’s complete crap. Yeah, I went there. I’m sure someone thinks they are clever making this meme. And I’m sure they really pleased with the circulation of it. But, sorry, they are wrong.
I’ll start with the first, and what should be very evident failure in this meme. If one of them wrote the number, they are the one that is correct. The other one isn’t seeing the truth, they are just seeing something from their uneducated point of view. If neither of the two cartoon characters wrote the number, it doesn’t change the fact that one of them is wrong. Someone wrote the number and someone made the determination that it was a 6 or a 9. So, therefor, someone is right and someone is wrong. The idea that they are both correct is just plain false. It’s garbage to think that just because they see something that they don’t really know about, but made a judgment on without really knowing has any ability for them to be right. They could be guessing and guess correctly, but c’mon, you know that’s not reality most of the time. Try balancing your checkbook and replacing every 6 with a 9. Let’s pause for a moment and explain what balancing a checkbook is. I’ve been very distressed over how many people I know that don’t do that. That’s where you keep track of your transactions and know how much money you have in the bank at all times rather than just checking the app and seeing a balance and thinking you can spend all of it. If you replaced every 6 with a 9, you’d be overdrawn real quick and you’d be broke and in the hole. Because it was supposed to be a 6, not a 9.
Here’s another one… what is the pronunciation of gif? It stands for Graphics Interchange Format. So, naturally, you think it’s pronounced with a hard “g” sound, right? After all, that’s how the word “graphics” uses the G, so… Listen, this is a very polarizing issue. There are blogs dedicated to this subject. There have been friendships ended, families torn apart, and countries in civil war over how this acronym is pronounced. Ok, maybe not that last one, but maybe. I have some news for some of you that think you’re right. You may not be. And you may argue it with me, but you’d be silly. The creator of the format, THE GUY WHO MADE IT, THE GUY WHO NAMED IT, has already said how it is pronounced. It took the internet by storm when he did too because there were so may Karen’s out there that just fell off their high horse and broke an ankle. Here’s the link to the article from the creator himself telling us how it’s pronounced: https://www.cnn.com/2013/05/22/tech/web/pronounce-gif/index.html
I even found this one blog from a lady that just went off calling the guy that created it an idiot because the G on graphics is a hard G and if he was going to say it was a soft G it would be a Jurassics Interchange Format. REALLY KAREN? You’re an idiot. I almost shared the link with you so you could laugh at her hysterics over it, but she’d probably track down that I did it and report me or something. Ok, I will be gracious enough to understand her point of view and the logic she’s using to come to her conclusion. But it doesn’t change the fact that she’s wrong. Don’t argue with the creator, you’re not going to be right ever when you go against the creator. Wow, there’s a lot of truth to unpack in this tiny little paragraph. I will be honest, when I started writing this, I had no intention of going this direction, but you know what… writer’s prerogative. Let’s go.
I know this is going to tick some people off, but it doesn’t matter. The Gospel is offensive. The world thinks it’s foolish. But if you’re a believer in Christ, you know that it isn’t. Well, I guess it could be if you’re wanting to walk into areas that you know you shouldn’t and then you could be offended by the Gospel too. That’s another post. We won’t unpack that today. There is really only one truth. I know the examples I gave above are silly with the number and the gif. But even being silly, they really do shed light on the fact that we don’t get it anymore. We think our point of view is truth and it’s not. It’s our perception. And our perception may be our chosen reality. But it doesn’t make it truth. There’s no such thing as your truth, my truth, their truth. There’s only one truth. Oh yeah, for you Star Wars lovers, the quote below is also crap. It makes for great emotional story telling, but it’s not reality. It’s not truth.
I hate throwing Star Wars under the bus, but that’s how you know how serious I am about this topic. Unfortunately, much of what’s happening in our great nation is a result of people buying into and believing that their perception is truth and they can have and are even entitled to having a different truth than anyone else. I could make up a truth that it’s legal for me to walk into a bank and steal all the money in the vault. But I doubt that would get me very far. I would also take bets that it would end with me going to jail. As it should. I can’t walk into a car dealership and take one off the lot because it’s nicer than what I have and my truth says I deserve it. Not in this reality anyway. If there’s another dimension that some of you are living in… nah… still not interested. Something tells me it would be complete chaos.
So, how do you know what truth is? I mean, we have the Constitution in the good old United States of America. And it seems that even our government can’t agree on what that means. Well, that might be because men wrote it. So, duh, yeah, I’m talking about the Bible as the way you know real truth. That means you’d have to read it. And I have other news, if you’re not saved, it’s foolishness to you. It’s meaningless because you don’t understand it. But to a believer, it’s the ultimate guide to the universe. It IS truth. And you should probably know it. You don’t need to be a scholar that could debate with John Piper or Martin Luther or (insert any number of super smart people on Bible knowledge here). Yeah, it’s convicting I know. How else are you going to have any truth to cling to and any truth to share?
I know who much of my audience is so far. You’re in tune with what I’m saying, even if you don’t like it or the implications of what I’m saying. Some of you are cheering. There may be some, now, or someone that later stumbles on this that is trying to figure out how I did a 180 talking about a silly file format and a silly number meme. You may be thinking I’m a doofus for trying to connect those dots. I’m not, I promise. The silly dots may not provide a serious tone to the discussion, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t connected. Looking at everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING, through the filter of actual truth changes your perspective on it. It changes how you make judgments. It doesn’t allow you to be judgmental, but we make judgements about everything.
God’s Word is rich and full of actual truth. THE TRUTH as the title of this post implies. If you think it can’t relate to that decision on your job, it does. If you think it can’t connect to how you spend your money, it does. If you… I could do this a hundred times and it would always end in “it does.” You have to engage it, read it, and listen. There have been a lot of people, sadly some preachers, that have just regurgitated it with the depth of knowledge and understanding that wouldn’t be deep enough to cover my pinky toe. They have led people into bizarre areas of belief that have been so far from the truth by spouting things found in the Word of God. But they’ve taken it out of context or explained it in ways that aren’t really true. They’ve shared their truth, not THE TRUTH. Guess what, those people they led astray were led astray because they weren’t reading it so they didn’t know. Don’t depend on someone else feeding it to you. Don’t just rely on your pastor preaching or your small group leader teaching. Don’t depend on that neato devotional book you are reading every day because it’s a few short paragraphs and is easy to get through so you can check it off your list. If you do, you’re… well, you’re doing it wrong.
With the modern age of the internet and apps on our devices, you don’t have any excuse not to get into the Word. You have enough time too, don’t try that one. I won’t lie, there’s so much more I want to say. There’s so many modern culture things I want to bring up. But I won’t. I don’t want to start an argument over the interwebs. That’s just as silly as Karen from earlier trying to argue with the creator on how to pronounce his own creation. Just think about all the stuff that has happened in the last 12-18 months. You must be able to see how people not having a real foundation of truth has led to so much discord and dissention. I hope you can see how desperately we need real truth now more than ever. Especially as believers that are trying to navigate a fallen world. Social Media has created an environment where people can spout “their truth” and demand you accept it and change your truth to match it. How crazy is that?
Also, I want to take a moment and pause to talk to all the Karens out there. Some of you are good Bible believing folks. You have no business spouting your personal preferences about subjects as truth. Keep you mouth shut for the sake of the Gospel. I beg of you. You are NOT helping. And attacking people with God’s Word isn’t really helpful either. Just settle down and remember to love people and let God change them. It’s not your job. It’s His. Apply His Word to your life. That’s kind of mentioned with the plank and the splinter. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you really need to read your Bible more.
Now what? I’ve told you that your point of view is worthless. I’ve told you that your point of view isn’t worth anything. I’ve told you that you’re likely wrong. If that’s what you focused in on, sorry, not my intention. You actually missed my point. My point isn’t to say that you’re wrong or any of those other negative things. My point is to ask you to consider your point of view, to consider your perspective through the filter of God’s Truth and see if it lines up. If it doesn’t, then yes, you are wrong. That should be a comfort to you and an encouragement to you to rest in God’s promises and His truth rather than your own. It is to me.
Oh, and if you want to know where I was intending to go…it was sort of similar I guess. I was getting at the fact that in both of the examples I shared, the topic of the example had a creator. There was a creator of the digit and there was a creator of the gif. In both cases, the truth was based on the creator, not the one gazing upon the creation. We need to stop and think about THE TRUTH and how we were created by a creator Who defines our truth.
It's All About Perspective 