Click here to read more #spiritualjourney posts. Thanks Holly for hosting this roundup!
Holly Meuller invites fellow bloggers to reflect on our spiritual journey each week. The theme this week is TRUTH.
I am not a true believer. I do not believe that everything happens for a reason. I do not believe that God has total control. I believe that God is real and true. I believe that we are given free will and with that gift, we can make the choice to nurture the God within.
Morning moon
Morning moon glow
I started the day thinking about truth. Looking into the sky before dawn, the full harvest moon looked down on me. My camera in my phone could not tell the truth. These photos do not show what I saw. Are these photos a lie? My husband and I discussed this dilemma. He said that now that he has had cataract surgery and has lens implants, everything he sees is a lie. Actually, everything we all see is only true to us, clouded by our vision or our perception.
The Bible is full of metaphor. Metaphor points to truth, but the message is not always visible.
The kingdom of God is…
a mustard seed,
a pearl,
a lost coin.
The Good Shepherd watches over his sheep,
knows them by name,
and goes out to look for the lost one.
One of my favorite poets is Mary Oliver. She writes with precise simplicity that speaks volumes. In A Thousand Mornings, she brings us into her daily morning meditations. Her poem “On Traveling to Beautiful Places” speaks of the search for God and for truth.
Every day I’m still looking for God
and I’m still finding him everywhere,
in the dust, in the flowerbeds.
Certainly in the oceans,
in the islands that lay in the distance
continents of ice, countries of sand
each with its own set of creatures
and God, by whatever name.
How perfect to be aboard a ship with
maybe a hundred years still in my pocket.
But it’s late, for all of us,
and in truth the only ship there is
is the ship we are all on
burning the world as we go.–-Mary Oliver, A Thousand Mornings, New York: Penguin Press, 2012. 67.
As I contemplate truth, I realize that there is no real truth. We are on a journey of discovery, doing the best we can with what we have. Truth is blurry, hard to see, like the moon in a photograph. Yet, it is there waiting to be discovered.
(After I finished writing this post, serendipity sent me the message that it was Mary Oliver’s birthday.)
Reflections on the Teche 
Your opening comments intrigued me. I feel like I want to know more about those first sentences!
I guess I asked for that. I hope you don’t take it the wrong way. I am not a literal interpreter. I cannot tell a young mother that her child died because God wanted her. I cannot tell my friend that there is a reason her husband has Alzheimers. When we believe in God, we believe in the resurrection, so truth will come, reason will come, but it comes from a spiritual relationship. I guess I could do a whole post about this.
Margaret, Your post really resonated with me. I agree with every syllable of these words, “everything we all see is only true to us, clouded by our vision or our perception”!!! YES! I love how you worded this and you’ve given me lots to think about. Thank you!!!
Questions and wonderings are always good. I don’t think that God is afraid of our questions about truth. I think He would embrace them!
I agree that our humanness creates an unclear version of the truth. I do think that the valleys in life can be used to create a glimpse of His truth. I believe he loves us and wishes for us to prosper – it’s just not always in the ways that a human mind can comprehend or appreciate. Thank you for your words. I will be thinking about them for a long time.