Don’t Bother Me With Facts

Spouting off before listening to the facts is both shameful and foolish.

Proverbs 18:13 (NLT)

As I’ve stated before in previous devotionals, I used to love watching the show Mythbusters. (A quick recap: It was a show on Discovery Channel were the hosts recreated popular myths to see if they were true or false. It was pretty amazing.) One of the hosts of the show, Adam Savage, made a statement during one the episodes that catapulted into a buzz phrase – it got repeated a lot. I paraphrase what he said, but it was essentially, “I reject your reality and substitute my own.” Now, because of those words uttered on TV, there are T-shirts, bumper stickers, computer wallpaper, Facebook pages, coffee mugs, and a thousand other different items that recapture this idea.

At first, the phrase sounds quirky, funny, nerdy, and just play silly. But, I believe the reason that it rocketed to catch-phrase status was that it is also very true for many of us. Often times we don’t want to be bothered by the facts, the truth. Instead, we want to have things the way that we want them, or see them. We want to live in our reality, not someone else’s.

When it comes to our faith, often times we fall into this trap. There are some difficult truths in the Scripture that we don’t particularly like because they don’t fit into our reality. We’ve made up our mind about things and don’t want to be bothered by the facts.

Even worse, often times we don’t even listen to the facts. Instead, we spout off that the person stating them is wrong, crazy, stupid, or intolerant. We close our ears and immediately shut them down. However, perhaps it is us that fits those criteria.

When it comes to our faith, the only reality that matters doesn’t come from you or me. It comes from the truth, the Scriptures. It doesn’t matter what my opinion is (or any pastor’s for that matter), it matters what God says.

As our verse today describes, when we speak our opinions rather than listening to truth, it’s both shameful and foolish. This is not a good status for a Christian.

As we journey together this year, let’s continue to push one another to dig into the facts. Open the Scriptures and let them speak for themselves. Doing so is the opposite of shameful and foolish. It is awesome and wise.