I’m a sucker for a good story about survival and triumph. So years ago, I found myself irresistibly drawn to this show simply and ingeniously titled ‘I Shouldn’t Be Alive’. You have probably heard of it. In every episode, someone gets closer to dying than anybody in their right mind would ever want to experience for themselves; but then they defy the odds and actually survive the life-threatening ordeal. Well, that is what happens in a nutshell.
In an effort to give you a more accurate description, I must acknowledge that not everyone survives. Sometimes there is a group of people, and unfortunately in that case, a story of “survival and triumph” can be told by, let’s say, two survivors of a five-person group in which three didn’t make it. In fact, that was the exact ratio in this one episode which in my opinion is the most memorable.
Five people were shipwrecked, two women and three guys. One woman tragically doomed earlier on from an infection in a wound she suffered during the wreck. The two guys who died afterwards, in the story, is really the piece that I want to share. As you can imagine, being shipwrecked in the middle of the ocean can’t be funny by any stretch of the imagination; and mainly because there are probably a thousand things that can cause this to turn out ugly. Their troubles began with the blistering sun beating down on them, therefore beginning the process of dehydration. As an act of desperation, they both begin to drink the sea water. It was a downward spiral from that point on.
The two guys became delusional and later died by being eaten by sharks, sharks that they previously were aware were following them in the water. However, no matter how much the others tried to warn them they only believed in their own truth. Their truth was that no sharks were there and safety was close by. The odd thing is their truth didn’t save them. As sad as it is, the sharks still ate them. I think that is worth noting today because these weird notions are being spread in education, television, music and every other form of communication – that we all have our own truth.
If that was true for these two men, then for them there would have been no sharks in the ocean, but they quickly learned that no matter how delusional they were, sharks still followed close by looking for a meal. The delusion that people are dealing with today is not brought on by drinking salt water, but rather by drinking the Kool-Aid. It's unsweetened Kool-Aid too. I say that because it’s conceptually missing something...consistency.
We’ve all heard stories of hallucinations, a lot like the one I shared. Often times drugs are somewhere in the picture. You’ve probably heard of the one guy that got so high he believed he could fly, but then he soon found out drugs only make you feel like you can fly.
I know all too well the pitfalls of only being slightly off the bulls-eye of truth and falling short because of a small miscalculation. I’m talking about my big fingers that often mistype on my iPhone by one letter, then auto-correct sends me down a long corridor of backspaces in an effort to send one short text.
Here’s the thing, Jesus said to the Father, “Your Word is truth” (John 17:17). The Word backs that up with saying, “Let God be true and every man a liar” (Romans 3:4).
You see there is only one truth. Just like the truth about gravity, your ethnicity, the length of your toenails, and the chicken in your chicken nuggets you’re eating. Well, that last one may have several truths. Even still, the Bible is the only book that seems to support its claims to be true, by accurately predicting the future over the course of 3500 years or so. Here’s just a few of those predictions.
The Earth is round.
Alexander the Great coming into power and reigning.
King Cyrus helping the Jews rebuild the Temple.
Israel returning to their land after close to 2000 years, (Never done before in history, I might add).
The destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D.
This guy being hung on a cross. You might’ve heard of that.
The fact the Earth is slowly falling apart. (Before you say how absurd that is; brush up on your news. Extinction after extinction, the water crisis, volcanic after volcanic eruption, record level heat, hurricanes, earthquakes and record levels of DELUSION)
And that’s the truth. But if you don’t think so, don’t worry...that poison won’t kill you.