Naked truth

When I am without a book, I am about as uncomfortable as when I wake up from those dreams where I am walking around naked in public (you know, the school bus, the supermarket…). Bookless, I wander around unsure what to do with the very little extra time I have and I constantly wonder what I am missing.

I recently finished a great work of nonfiction, so as I meandered through my book shelf desperate for a temporary fix until I could acquire a new book, I glanced at my collected works of Flannery O’Connor. O’Connor wrote fascinating fiction, most of it taking place in the sweltering South, and since the humidity has be HIGH here in Philadelphia, I decided to pick old Flannery up.

Her best known work is probably Wise Blood, a tale about a disturbed young man named Haze whose late grandfather was a screaming traveling evangelist. Haze spends much of the book convincing himself, and the other characters, that he does not believe in Jesus. At one point, he stands before a crowd (not unlike his late grandfather) and declares, “I’m going to preach a new church – the church of truth without Jesus Christ Crucified. It won’t cost you nothing to join my church. It’s not started yet but it’s going to be.”

As I continue to reread Haze’s struggle, I am struck at how like him we all are. Often we believe or disbelieve things in REACTION to someone or something else, not because they are true or not. Haze’s Bible thumping grandfather left him faithless, but his struggle had nothing to do with whether Jesus is a fact or not.

I do not want to be a reactionary believer, or a reactionary skeptic. Absolute truth is not popular these days, but that does not mean it’s not a fact. If we begin to seek truth, instead of responding in involuntary ways based on experiences, we may be surprised at what does and does not ring true deep within us.

Strip it all off.