Not long ago, I went to see the movie Unplanned. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s Abby Johnson’s story of her eight years of working at Planned Parenthood—from volunteer escort while still in college, to clinic counselor to clinic director and even employee of the year. Abby started at Planned Parenthood, because of her concern about women’s health. And even though she was concerned with reducing abortions (and was convinced Planned Parenthood felt the same), she nevertheless considered it an integral part of women’s health. Abby had two abortions herself. But she was not that concerned about abortions until she was called on to assist in performing one—an ultrasound-guided abortion of a 13 week old fetus, where she watched as the doctor turned on the suction and saw the baby struggle for its life before finally getting sucked apart right in front of her on the screen and just inches from the probe she was holding. And in Abby’s own words, “My life was forever changed and everything I knew to be true was flipped”. And she walked out of Planned Parenthood a week later.

To be sure, there were more Planned Parenthood employees who probably didn’t feel the same as Abby. Abby’s boss had no problem with abortion. She saw Planned Parenthood as a business whose purpose was to make money. The profits were in abortions, so they just needed to perform more abortions. And there were others working there, who I am sure had thoughts and opinions on abortion somewhere between Abby and her boss.

“Everything I knew to be true was flipped”.

As I watched the movie, I began to think about how each of the people, even though they all appeared to be good, caring people, even though they all worked at the same place, even though they all knew exactly what was going on throughout the clinic, even though they all had a similar knowledge of what was involved in performing abortions, had each found a different truth. Even Abby says she began with one truth but at the end of eight years she had found a different and polar opposite one.

Which got me thinking about truth. Not just the big things of today like abortion, or homosexuality or religion, but all the many other smaller things we disagree over and now often even argue and fight over. What is the truth—does it even matter, is it important? Can something like abortion have more than one truth—can something be right and wrong? Can it be right under these circumstances and wrong under these? How can I know the truth—how do I separate the truth from all the different opinions and messages being treated as truth flooding my senses from every direction, but especially the media and internet today? Why can’t you have your truth and I have mine? Do I even care if what I have is the truth as long as I am comfortable with it? Are things really black and white or has everything in this modern age turned to gray and so the truth too has been turned to gray—do the truths of the past no longer apply because things and people are no longer like in the past?

To be sure, the sheer speed with which our modern world moves and changes makes it difficult to deal with the increasing complexities of life. And we seem to have so little time to deal with things like seeking the truth.

As a Christian, my first response as to where to find the truth would be John 14:6 where Jesus said “I am (God is) the truth”. And as to if the old truths still apply today I would answer Malachi 3:6 “For I, the LORD, do not change, “. So it would seem simple; learn about God and what he has to say and you will know the truth. Except it doesn’t appear to be that easy. If it were, it would seem Christians at least would all agree on what is true—and yet we don’t.

The United Methodist Church (over 7 million people in the US) seems prepared to split over whether homosexuality is right or wrong, following in the steps of other smaller denominations. Christians and as a subgroup, Catholics are split almost half and half over whether both abortion and homosexuality are right or wrong. Where is truth?

We have gone to church, we have read or heard what God has to say and yet we have found different and even opposing truths. I know people who go to church with me every week. People who have gone to the same bible studies. People who have gone to the same missions and retreats. People who give of their time,  talents and treasures to the community, the church and to God. And yet people who have found different truths.

So, is truth important?

Does it really matter?

There are a few bible verses that scare me to death and I take very seriously. One of them is Matthew 18:6,7.

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of things that cause sin! Such things must come, but woe to the one through whom they come!

We are all God’s little ones. And if we lead anyone into sin because of the things we do or say, or the things we should do or say, but don’t, God makes it clear what our future will be like. God says that the truth matters and is most critical to our eternity.

So how can we all go to church, study the same word of God, pray to the same God and seek truth and to do what we believe is right and yet arrive at different truths?

Though there may be more answers, there are two that stand out to me as being my biggest hindrances to truth. First of all, pride. Pride is a difficult thing to talk about because it is so devious, subtle and I think diabolic. Pride is so hard to see in ourselves. We can believe we are doing so good when we’re not. We can believe we are doing things for God when we are not. We can think we are helping people when we are not. We can believe we know God and what he wants when we don’t. We can believe we can think like God but we can’t. We’re blind to the people and the messages God is trying to deliver to us because our pride says we are good just like we are and if we need anything else we will figure it out ourselves if and when the time ever comes. The saints say that to save ourselves from pride and to find him, we must first empty ourselves of ourselves.

The second thing that often stands between me and truth is compassion. Compassion—a deep awareness of the suffering of others accompanied by the desire to relieve it—a good thing, yes? Jesus had compassion, there are many bible verses speaking of his compassion. The problem, at least for me comes when my compassion, my desire to help and take away someone’s apparent misery and suffering, overpowers and displaces what I know is God’s truth. My compassion convinces me that God wouldn’t really say what he said under these circumstances. That God would change his mind and agree with me in this situation. Our compassion sometimes doesn’t allow us to appreciate that what we see as bad can in reality be good. Compassion can make it difficult to live first for God and our future home in heaven, because we are so concerned about this world. We are called  to be compassionate, but what good do we accomplish when we bend or break God’s truth to achieve it.

We go to church, we read and hear the same words from God and we pray—and yet we don’t agree on the basics of what is true and what is false, what is good and what is bad, what is right and what is wrong. Will we ever?

In his book “Fundamentals of the Faith” Peter Kreeft says “Jesus solves the problem of interpreting his words and his authority correctly, in one amazingly simple stroke when he says “If any man’s will is to do the will of my Father, he will know my teaching” (Jn 7:17). We will have unity only when we have God unity. We will be one with each other only when we are one with God. And we will be one in mind with God, and thus with each other, only when we are one in heart and will with God.

Truth only comes from God. But before he can give it to us, we must first be emptied of ourselves—of everything of any value. To be emptied requires both our desire and permission.

Towards the end of the movie, Abby Johnson saw that she was guilty in helping kill thousands of unborn children. One day, we too will see what we have done throughout our lives by following our truths.