Does the name David Walsh ring a bell? Probably not unless you are a keen fan of cycling. But you will probably have heard of the man he wrote a book about: Lance Armstrong. Walsh is the guy who exposed Armstrong’s doping and is the author of Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong.
I haven’t read it and to be honest I have no intention of doing so. But I am intrigued by David Walsh and his pursuit of the truth.
For years he doggedly chased the truth, a pursuit that has of course been recently vindicated. When asked why he wrote the book he said: “Finding and telling the truth was important”. That’s where I become interested in David Walsh. I have a fascination with truth.
I think we all do. Every society from the ancient Greeks to modern day has enjoyed a fascination with the discovery of truth.
This human pursuit of truth makes sense. God created us to ponder and question and delight in new discoveries. But I love the fact that the deepest truths about ourselves and our world have been revealed in the person of Jesus. He claimed to be no other than the way, the truth and the life.
God’s revelation of himself in Jesus and throughout scripture is truth; truth that is profound but also relevant to the detail of every day life. At the moment I’m so aware of my need to be dependent on this certain truth. Not just in a philosophical ‘I know my destiny and purpose’ kind of way, but also as a lens by which I interpret everything around me, including my circumstances and especially my emotions.
I’m a full time mum and I love it! But some mornings I can wake up and feel hopeless or I can find myself slipping too easily into feelings of self-pity, insecurity, laziness, anger, anxiety.
2 Peter 1:3 says: “God’s divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness because of our knowledge of him”. This fills me with such confidence. I have God’s spirit and his word as an authority over and above my feelings and situation.
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? God is the strength of my life. I have been made alive with Christ. God makes known to me the path of life; in his presence there is fullness of joy and so on. These verses lift me away from thought patterns that don’t do me (or those around me) any good.
I’m also wary though of limiting the Bible to an emotional pick me up. It’s either unalterable truth or it isn’t. The challenge comes when it’s at odds with prevailing thought. Culture is constantly changing; some values accepted for centuries are no longer tolerated today. Some values that are the norm now would not have been tolerated less than a century ago. Putting our confidence in culture to determine our ethics, priorities and attitudes is putting us on shaky ground…sand in fact. I want to make more time to know God’s truth and make sure that my feet are firmly placed on the rock of my salvation.