The Real Truth

I was recently watching a fascinating documentary on television about how the Royal Navy train commanders of their nuclear submarines. In their final set of tasks there were several civilian boats on the water as well as the warship that was there as part of the test. As such, the trainee commander soon became inundated with information from all of the high-tech surveillance equipment these multi-billion-pound machines have to offer. But, being in a submarine, there was a wholehearted reliance on the technology, and this led to a mass of varying pictures and scenarios that didn’t seem to make sense. They called this excessive information ‘the curse of the modern submariner’, where reality gets lost in an overload of reports, information and opinions.

In the midst of this an observing Rear Admiral of the Navy took the trainee aside and said, “Look through the periscope.” As he did, the trainee saw the situation for what it really was and the Admiral said, “You’ve now got a completely different view of the problem. It’s not as bad as you thought it was.” This was the turning point for the trainee commander.

I very much related to this scenario, where I too can receive information overload with all the online and media access that we have. Opinions can be quoted as fact, misinformation spread, perceptions and information come fast and loose with little time for processing or discerning whether its roots are in truth or not. Soon, we too can become overloaded and start to become overwhelmed by what we now perceive to be an intensively complex situation.

We need to be able to look at our lives and world events through the eyes of the One who truly knows the real truth. We need to allow ourselves to let God’s truth and view of the situations cut through all the noise of opinion and information that is thrown at us with discerning hearts and minds.

It is in this place we can see the situation for what it is, from His perspective, not our own. From there, we can find the promised perfect peace in our hearts.

Prayer: Father God, I acknowledge that I have sometimes allowed myself to be distracted and overwhelmed by all the noise and information that the world has to throw at me. As the Psalm says, ‘Lead me by your truth and teach me,’ so that I can live in a place of peace and rest. Amen.