Truth or Love
My Dear People,
Diana Butler Bass tells the story of a question posed by one of her seminary professors. Dr. Lovelace asked the class, "If you had to pick, what kind of Christianity would you rather have: a Christianity with the right answers that was dead; or a Christianity, loose around the intellectual edges, that compelled people to act in love?"
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Diana writes, "We sat and stared at him. No one wanted to answer. We really wanted both, but we also knew how seldom that has happened in Christian history."
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Which would I pick?
If I had been there, I'd like to think I would have jumped up on my desk and yelled, "The love!"
Okay, maybe I wouldn't have jumped up on my desk. That said, the choice is an easy one, if you ask me.
I'll take love over truth any day of the week.
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However, as Professor Lovelace knew, his if-you-had-to-pick scenario is a false choice: we don't have to choose, at least not once and for all.
Which Diana acknowledges as well; while saying, at the same time, that it's hard to have both: true clarity and true love.
Yes, it is hard.
It's the hardest work of all.
And it's the best work of all.
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Of course, the truth we seek is the truth of love.
And the love we seek is the highest truth.
And so, Jesus assures us, in the seeking, shall we be set free.
Your brother in Christ,
Wallace+
