A day that defines a belief system.

I tweeted this earlier today: "This day has been a belief system defining day." And so it has.

The beliefs that took a firmer shape today aren't the same as my belief in God's unfailing love, for instance. That's a firm, strong belief. These are slightly lesser and could conceivably be changed. So they're not core beliefs. I have had days that were so significant that they helped to shape core beliefs, but today was not quite that significant.

Today helped to reinforce that big things will undoubtedly go wrong when it is least convenient. The higher the pressure, the quicker things will fall apart. Count on this, and disappointment will be lessened when it happens.

Knowing this, the complete weakness of humanity, of me, is also reinforced. Because you, I, can't do anything to keep things from falling apart. And usually, the harder you, I, try to do something about it, the quicker more things go wrong.

Knowing this then, a big spotlight shines upon the overwhelming greatness of God. He is ultimate. Nothing else can take His place. And He is faithful to you when you are not to Him. Which means that when you start losing your focus, you'll be amazed at how quickly you'll be knocked down on your face, reminding you of where you're supposed to be looking. Which is not to say that God directly orchestrates the falling on your face. But he could very easily keep you from falling on your face. He could easily make everything work and not let anything fall apart. But he loves you. He loves me. And in that love, he lets us see just how messed up our natural tendencies are. To do anything else would be to control us, and that wouldn't be love. Love can't control.

I said these weren't core beliefs, and that's true to a point. The first couple of things aren't settled as deeply into my core as say my identity in Christ. But the inherent weakness of people, the greatness of God and love not being able to control, those are rooted deeply. And those first couple of things help to prove those later points, which is why I tend to believe they're true. I don't see how lies could point to truth. To be sure, if we see lies for what they are, that can lead us to finding the truth, because we know whatever the truth is, it's not the lie in front of us. But that's through a recognition that something is false and then a turning in the other direction, rather than continuing down the same path. If you keep going down a path that starts with a lie, all you're going to encounter are more lies.

Thus today, I am grateful for truth. It's the only reason I didn't scream. Now it is time to go to sleep. In truth. So that I can get up in the morning. In truth. And spend my day following truth rather than all the looming untruths around me.