There’s an ancient Chinese proverb that says, “There are three truths: mine, yours, and the truth.”
There are two sides to every story, and somewhere in between lies the real story – as the following tale illustrates: At a gathering, two 8-year-old boys began arguing over the prize from a box of Cracker Jack. They’d just finished sharing the treat when one of the boys suddenly accused the other of taking the prize.
The other insisted he had not, and it wasn’t too long before the two youngsters were shouting at each other and drawing a lot of attention. An adult stepped in, separated the boys, and sternly asked them what the ruckus was all about.
“He stole the prize,” one boy accused, and the other responded defiantly, “I did not!”
The adult took the box and peered inside, then tore the box open, exposing a small paper puzzle that was wedged in the cardboard wrapper. He looked at both boys, who hung their heads for a moment. Then they looked at each other, grinned sheepishly and apologized. Moments later, they ran off to play, the prize forgotten.
You don’t have to win an argument to seize the prize. Sometimes there’s a lot more worth in recognizing what’s true for someone else, identifying what’s true for you, and looking for a common truth in the situation. You don’t have to agree with another’s point of view – but it sure helps if you understand it.
The prize in any argument is finding the truth for everyone and recognizing the worth of both sides of a story.
Then you can run and play again.
Here is SoL's response:
To answer your question, no, there is not more than one truth, no matter how much we "understand" other points of view. Understanding people has nothing to do with whether their perception is valuable or right or true. There are absolutes when it comes to reality, truth, right and wrong. And it's absolutely wrong to pretend that just because someone perceives/decides/ remembers/thinks/believes something strongly it is any sort of true or good. The little boys in the story were both wrong, and their sides of the story were worse than worthless--they were unfounded and accusatory and selfish. They eventually realized it and were right to feel ashamed. You have misunderstood the Chinese proverb, which is tongue-in-cheek; it means human beings, you and me, are often very sure we are right when both people are wrong. C.S. Lewis wrote, "There are a dozen views about everything until you know the answer. Then there's never more than one." The scripture says the truth will set you free, not "your truth" or "my truth," the truth.
We need to think these things through and be careful what we share. This is godless secular progressivism disguised as a little nonjudging feel-good story and these insidious, harmless looking emails is one way these wrong ideas spread. This self-serving garble-de-gook results in unthinking people separating themselves from God and His objective standard of right and wrong.
Everyone should read The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis, a very thin but important book. He begins by examining something similar to this email that he read in a high school textbook.
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