³⁷ “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

³⁸ “What is truth?” retorted Pilate.

John 18:33-38

The Merriam-Webster’s team of lexicographers choose the 2023 word of the year via a simple process. They look at how many hits and searches words receive, and among the words in the pool, they pick the one that represents the zeitgeist for that year. Last year, it was “gaslighting”. 

And perhaps, it’s no surprise then, that the word of the year for 2023 is “Authentic“.

Is it any wonder people are struggling and searching for something ‘authentic’ in a world where there are no absolutes, no truths that aren’t considered just someone’s opinion? Well, except pesky science that keeps proving the world is based on absolute, objective, and verifiable facts. I guess that’s why we see groups across the entire left to right political spectrum denying science: from environment to biology.

We are increasingly casting off the notion of objective, scientific truths for little more than opinions couched in the whole ‘speaking my truth’ phenomenon. Instead, social truth comes solely from the conviction of your opinion. It’s ironic that this means we’re becoming slaves to charismatic people instead of facts. Charismatic and sometimes well-meaning people, however, have lead us to some of the most horrific periods of the 20th century.

Faith is inescapable. Even an atheist puts their faith in countless things all day. For some it’s news sources, political parties, social media stars, to simple things like trusting electricity works by flipping switches and their car will protect them in a crash. And yes, spiritual faith. Yet, it’s a bit terrifying to see us throwing out honest debate, science, verification of facts, and seeking truth with intellectual curiosity for opinions based on emotion, violence, and charismatic leaders instead.

If you think proving objective truth is limited to just science, there is a way to test other facts. You drive down the road having faith in the engineers that made it that the car will be safe. You can also have faith in the teachings of Christ, and you can test them the same way: by experiment.

I recommend that if you want to try out real truth in your life – you can easily give it a try.