Truth and Trash

One of the elders at my church said something about how he searches for Truth in the dumpster. . . or he’s not afraid to search for truth in the dumpster. . . either way. . . I liked it, it stuck with me, and I’ll explain why. . .

It’s really easy to become completely in love with a certain person (author, musician, pastor, actor, politician, etc) or a certain movement. Ya know, everyone wants to be ALL ABOUT something. We long to find a cause or an idea or a movement that we can say, “yes, that’s what I’m all about! That’s all truth! I want to represent that!”

Because that feels good! It makes us feel purposeful! It gives us meaning!

We are wired for that as humans.

And it’s great. Cause there is one thing (person/movement) we should be ALL ABOUT.

But when it comes to people we follow though we must be careful. This is something I’ve noticed in myself that God has really been working on in this season of life. . .

I read a book or listen to sermons or hear stories about a person, and I agree with everything I hear, and so it’s easy to think that I agree with everything that person is about and everything they’ve ever said and I get all excited about that person and proclaim his/her greatness to the world. (and it is a wonderful and edifying thing to do—to talk about how great people are, so ill keep that part) And I hear other people doing this as well. And its okay but I just want to start making sure that I realize that this person has faults and if I dig into everything this person thinks, writes, speaks about, and does I probably won’t agree with all of it. So I probably shouldn’t act like I’m ALL ABOUT that person as if I truly know him/her.

I want to take the truth and leave the trash.

I want to be able to dig into people (a few examples: Rob bell, shane Claiborne, mark driscoll, matt chandler, mother teresa) and find the things that they are saying that are true (meaning: they line up with Jesus) and leave the stuff that’s trash. I want to be able to read books that many people think is very controversial and dig through the trash to find the truth. I want to be able to read the books that everyone thinks is wonderful and say, ‘hmm I think this is actually trash, cause it actually doesn’t line up with Jesus, no matter what others say.’

If I start listening to someone who is “right on” with everything, I want to remind myself that there is probably something that is not “right on” with them and maybe I’m just getting caught up in how great the words sound or something of that nature. Maybe I need to keep my eyes open for something that could be trash. Now, this doesn’t mean I become cynical and doubtful of everything and everyone. It just means I take people for what they are—human. And I test everything to see if it falls under the one thing I am ALL ABOUT.

And I want to also be careful about not making a particular person sound like they are ‘perfect’ when I talk about them, and making them out to be something they can’t live up to. I think we do that a lot when we become ALL ABOUT someone or something.

The same stuff happens with ‘movements’ or ‘ideas’ or ‘causes.’ Some examples: the emergent church, women’s rights or feminism, fair trade, certain styles of doing church, political issues, and such.

Hear me say that there is nothing wrong with being pro or anti any of those things and anything else you can add to that list. If you know me, you can probably name lots of “issues,” “causes,” and even “movements” that I support. I just think that we need to be careful about how much we put into those things for fear that it could start defining you and your faith. Or that you may become blinded to seeing the flaws in it. Just like with people, all movements and causes probably have some truth and trash in it. There are many things within the Emergent movement that is awesome and I recognize it as truth because its part of Jesus’ movement (the one thing we should be ALL ABOUT), but there are some things that I’m gonna leave behind as trash, so therefore I can’t completely identify with it. I support women being treated fairly and beautifully and equally worthy as the rest of the world because that is part of Jesus’ movement, but I am not pro-More-power-for-women-over-men, or pro-focusing on one gender over another. I could keep going with other things, but I think you get what I’m saying.

Most of this is probably more directed towards people in my age range—and mainly to myself. I just want us to be constantly aware that we are young, naïve, and have much more to learn. Therefore we should be weary about jumping 100% on board with any person, cause, or movement. I think we should be weary of labels too. Like, labeling ourselves as something. I mean, that’s a thin line because a lot of times our faith can be lived out through labels—but I argue that there are very few of those labels.

I’m also NOT pro- banning certain books, movies, or people and labeling them as 100% trash. I think its okay to look into all things WITH MUCH CAUTION (and always with wise counsel,) whether they are labeled truth or trash and find the truth in there. Claim that truth as part of Jesus’ movement (since that’s where all truth comes from) and discard the rest.

Find things that line up with your faith and passions and be for that, IF it’s part of the Jesus’ movement, but make sure you separate the truth from the trash within that thing. Because anything that is formed by people is not going to be perfect. It might have just .00001% trash, but it’s got some in there somewhere.