"Post-truth?"

“ Oxford Dictionaries has chosen their “word of the year,” and it is an interesting reflection of the current 2016 culture.

The word, according to Time.com, is “post-truth.”

Oxford defines it this way:

“post-truth: relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.””

This is a troublesome observation. We must never allow a belief system to become the criterion for truth. We must never allow emotion to overtake truth or define truth. We must be diligent in not allowing the pretend to define reality.

As a culture we spend multiple hours being influenced by the pretend world as portrayed by Hollywood. We are so invested in the pretend that the real is difficult to find. There are many married couples who have spent more hours in the pretend world than they have in the real world and have lost all context for their real life and real relationship. 

The hours of influence have dulled our ability to live in reality and made us a most dissatisfied people who are adversely influenced by the millions of dollars spent trying to convince us that our lives are not complete without their product or service.

We have become emoters rather than those who live real lives, victims of the pretend world (pretend being Satan’s native language) seemingly unable to live as we were intended to live.

The answer to this problem is simple, yet not easy. We need to abandon the pretend for the real. We need to place an emphasis on being in relationships rather than watching relationships. We need to start living in the realm of what we know rather than what we feel.

We need make restoration more important than punishment and recognize the great danger that exists in the individual(s) who refuses to embrace the truths that allow restoration to occur.

Restoration does not mean we compromise truth, it means we have decided to get in line with the truth. Those who are restored are those who see things correctly and respond to truth honestly and openly. Those who refuse to be restored to truth, to God, should not be given an opportunity to influence us. They should not be given the opportunity to influence our lives.

This sounds harsh and contrary to restoration yet it is vital. The process of restoration, is a simple pathway to truth that is uncluttered and unobstructed. Those who make it difficult, clutter it up and somehow obstruct are evil and need to be recognized as such.

If you love sheep and are entrusted with their care you know that it is never appropriate for wolves to mingle with your sheep. Wolves are always a threat to the sheep and it is always appropriate for the shepherd to make sure they do not mingle.