When I was younger, we had several words for what is today called “fake news”. We called it embellishment, exaggeration, or bold-faced lying. Consider, however, a peculiar strain of philosophers who question whether or not truth empirically exists, and if so, is it actually knowable?
Solomon seemed to think so, and he pretty well had the monopoly on wisdom, not be mention several other things:
Commit yourself to instruction;
listen carefully to words of knowledge.
And a little further down the page:
Get the truth and never sell it;
also get wisdom, discipline, and good judgment.
I appreciate his imperative use of “get the truth”. It invokes another part of philosophy called logic, which states or ‘a’ cannot equal ‘not a’. In other words, you cannot have two opposing statements be true at the same time (or something like that; one my end, sometimes it’s helpful to put down the philosophy book and pick up Calvin and Hobbes.)
According to King Solomon, truth is something I can go get; I can commit myself to its proper and prosperous instruction because (1) it exists, and (2) is available. Evidently, it comes with wisdom, discipline and good judgment thrown in for good measure. But I have to go and get it. Intentionally. Persistently. Disregarding all that is “not truth”.
Which is a muddy pool to wade in for our society these days, or any culture in any time period since we got booted out of the Garden. We have a distinct tendency (as opposed to the rest of creation, if you’ll notice) to prefer “Not-A” if ‘A’ is less to our liking, and we have various and sundry reasons as to why don’t like it.
Actually, ‘it’ is a ‘Who’, which puts a name and history to just what we are rejecting. Here’s what Jesus says about Himself:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”
Which makes the rejection personal, not merely philosophical.
Proverbs 23:12,23; John 14:6 Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
“A man generally has two reasons for doing a thing. One that sounds good, and a real one.”
Please pardon the old movie referred to in the title. If you don’t know where it’s from, no worries–it’s not worth it.
I love the story of the Prodigal Son, on several layers. Did you know that the word prodigal doesn’t mean “sinful”? It means extravagant. Wasteful. Lavish. I guess I didn’t know that until well into my adulthood. The kid in the story certainly exemplifies the concept quite well.
Dad is a retired engineer, a graduate of Purdue University, a true Boilermaker is ever there was one. He was the first of his family to go to college, not a small accomplishment having been born at the start of the Great Depression. After his stint in the Navy, and a bit of disgruntlement with the union’s treatment of his hard work ethic, he decided to go back to school. So here was a seasoned vet in his early twenties heading off to classes with fresh-faced high school graduates in a post-Korea university setting.
I’m sitting on the back porch as the birds herald in the morning when I hear the cat-bird. Yea, he’s back! I love that odd avian sound truly mimicking a cat. 
I love to fly. I’ve been in jets, small private planes, and even a free-float hot air balloon. Something birds take for granted, I suppose, but for me, being up in the air is exhilarating. 
Moses, what a guy. Talk about job stress—the perks were pretty great but so were the occupational hazards. (And I think I have tough days!) At least there was clear communication with the Boss; no lost email trails or intra-office misinterpretation of body language, all that. God’s instructions were always unmistakably clear, right down to what colors of decorative embroidery thread to use for the big church tent!
Because sometimes He may just give us the pattern and let us pick out the color of thread.
When our youngest went to Peru on a month-long mission trip right before high school, I decided I would take advantage of her absence to clean her room. Thoroughly. As in a full-scale geological excavation. 
Proverbial Thought 