What it Means to Live in Truth

For those of you who are new to Good News!, I thought I'd do a little review of what it means to Live in Truth. Most of us think of truth as the principles and doctrines taught in the scriptures. But the definition of truth we find in the scriptures is, “Truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come” (D&C 93:24). This is similar to the Merriam-Webster On-line Dictionary which defines truth as: (1) The state of being the case. (2) The body of real things, events, and facts. (3) A transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality. Synonyms are: fact, verity, actuality, reality. Certainly the principles of the gospel fit this definition; they are what is, was and will be. They are the “body of real things, events, and facts.” But “the state of being the case” in this mortal world also means that war, accidents, death, disease, disappointment, distress, fear, natural disasters and so many other negative things are the truth. They are reality.

Living in Truth, then, means living the principles of the gospel and accepting the fact that in this telestial world there are going to be thorns, thistles, and weeds. Death, disease, accidents, and wars, are going to occur. People are going to say and do things you don’t like. Things are going to happen to you that hurt. That is the truth.

Whenever we are faced with Truth, we have two choices. We can fix it or live with it. If there is something we can do to fix it, we should. We can pull up the weeds or cut off the thorns or we can live with them. If we start to feel victimized because there are weeds in our lives, if we start to think that those weeds shouldn’t be there, we are fighting against truth and when you fight against truth you always lose. Thus whenever you find yourself saying things like, “She shouldn’t have said that to me,” or “He should be more considerate of my feelings,” you have left the realm of Truth. When we think about what has happened—the truth—in terms of should or shouldn’t have we are no longer dealing in truth. Remember the truth is what happened—the verity or reality. That reality is what we have to deal with, not what should have happened.

When we leave the realm of Truth we fall into the Pit of Illusion where only pain—unnecessary pain—and misery exist. And that’s what we’ll talk about tomorrow—the vexing Pit of Illusion.