5 Minute Friday

I am linking up with hundreds (maybe thousands?) of other women HERE

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I remember that dusty classroom on the second floor
Situated in my high school in downtown Jacksonville
Those classrooms and halls were filled with some of the most brilliant minds I have ever studied alongside
We were in a class called “Theory of Knowledge”
The was a challenge for me
I had my best friend, Liz, with me and we would sit and listen
I would write down every word I could so I could go back later that night and try to understand a fraction of what was taught
(When it seemed everyone else understood each theory and meaning as soon as it left the teacher’s lips)
But, to be honest, half of it seemed to go right over my frizzy, curly head
One afternoon we were given a prompt for writing
And the word was “Truth”
We were to choose two angles of writing: Relative Truth or Absolute Truth
Choose one and write on it
Use examples and articles from what we had discussed the previous weeks in class
Seemed pretty easy, but for 16 yr old me, it was a daunting task

I remember turning to my best friend and asking her what she was going to choose
(She was one whom I always looked to for answers to spiritual questions that seemed to evade me)
She quickly answered “Absolute, of course, Jess”
“Oh” I replied
She looked at me and asked what I was thinking
“Well, I think I am going to…um…like…maybe choose Relative”
Perplexed but full of grace, she asked why.
“Well, it seems easier”
(insert smile, in retrospect, now)
“And”, I added, “there are a lot more articles and examples to use from class to defend relative truth over absolute truth”
As the words slipped off my tongue, conviction fell hard on me
Liz didn’t even need to speak
She looked at me, smiled, and saw the Spirit working I believe

Because it was “easy”
That was my reasoning.
My young heart was still wrestling over this grand notion of a God of grace
This One who, while we were still sinners, died for us
This One who removed our debts and took them on Himself
And gave us His inheritance of royalty
This paradox of a faith that says
We cannot earn it
We just must believe in the finished work of Him
Our work is all in vain
Even our good deeds, they are filthy rags
And it comes from the mouth of a servant King who said
” I AM the way, the TRUTH, and the Life…
No one comes to the Father except through me”

This offensive Truth of a God, becoming man
Because He needed to save mankind
Who proved themselves again and again unworthy of obedience
And that was it
This was the Truth
“And the Truth will set you free”

How to write a paper with that as my foundation theory
It surely seemed hard
But I wrote that paper
I found a few scattered citations to work with
And I realized that though it was hard
My burden, first heavy, was now light
Because Truth, it does set you free

And that conversation with Liz always sits in the back of my mind
It often creeps to the forefront when big decisions of right and wrong come forward
Walking down streets in this nation and seeing injustice and pain
The easy thing is to ignore it
Relatively speaking, it always has existed (injustice, that is)
And it always will
Relatively speaking, any attempt or spoken word of mine will not end the problem on a large scale
Injustice will keep  happening as soon as I walk on

But what about His Word?
What does it say?
It absolutely says to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves
And it says to love
It reminds us that love covers a multitude of sins

And then I think of that decision on September 20 something, 2011
When that boy, my now son, was abandoned at birth
Stained with the effects of mortality and generational sin and disease
Curses spoken against him
He laid silently, without any proper clothes, in a cardboard box

Relatively speaking, I knew kids were left all the time all over the world
Relatively speaking, many kids are born with malformations and die
Relatively speaking, he could just keep existing in that box and people would feed him
They would keep coming and staring at him
Relatively speaking, what could we do?
When I looked at these options, they seemed the easy way out.

But He absolutely calls us to sacrifice
He absolutely says that He gives life
He absolutely says to care for the orphan and widow
He absolutely says that He takes foolish things to shame wise
And He absolutely said that when I was full of sin (deformed by it) He died for me
To adopt me
To rescue me

“You shall know the Truth and the Truth will set you free”

So thankful the Truth of Him set Adam boy free.