When I was in preschool, our class read the book Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss and shared a meal of “green eggs” and ham.
I will never forget going home to my mom after school and declaring that green eggs and ham tasted way better than regular eggs and ham. Even at three or four years old, I knew I was going to be laughed at for saying that. I knew it sounded silly to announce, but I also knew I was speaking the truth! I had tasted the meal, and I knew green eggs and ham tasted better than regular eggs and ham.
Now, obviously I know as an adult that it wasn’t the green food coloring that made the eggs taste better; it was the way they were prepared. Maybe they were made with extra seasonings or lots of butter. Maybe the eggs were cooked in bacon grease. Who knows? However the eggs and ham were cooked, I liked them better than any eggs and ham I’d tasted before. Green or yellow, those scrambled eggs were superior to other eggs I’d tasted. It was the truth, but it sounded weird, and I got laughed at. I knew my mom was trying to hide her amusement as she played along and pretended I may be onto something. Eventually she did what any parent would do and gently explained that the eggs were exactly the same, only with green food coloring.
I knew better. They tasted better, and that was that!
I believe I have a mandate on my life to speak the truth, no matter how unbelievable it sounds or how many people laugh at me. Even as a preschooler, I grasped that on some level. I understood that what I was saying sounded ridiculous and that I would get laughed at for saying it, but I still said it because I had such a deep conviction that it was true. (What can I say, I was very passionate about what I ate from a young age! 😂)
We are living in a time when mainstream narratives often directly contradict the truth. Messages are repeated over and over that sound logical but are simply not true. Because of all this repetition and so much of society’s blind buy-in, the truth often sounds foreign. Sometimes the truth sounds too good to be true when messages of fear are broadcast so pervasively. A lot of times the truth just sounds plain weird, because we aren’t used to hearing it.
I’m here to tell you that truth is still truth, even when nobody else is speaking it. Even when it sounds ridiculous. Even when much of society laughs at it. Truth is still true.
A lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right, and evil doesn’t become good, just because it’s accepted by a majority.
Rick Warren
Right is right, though all condemn, and wrong is wrong, though all approve.
Charles Spurgeon
Sometimes the truth sounds weird. Speak it anyway. Sometimes speaking the truth causes other people to think you’re weird. Speak it anyway. Sometimes people will laugh at you for speaking the truth. Speak it anyway.
The further a society drifts from the truth the more it will hate those that speak it.
George Orwell
The truth is what sets people free. And truth is still true, no matter how unbelievable it may sound.
And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
John 8:32 NASB
But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own, but whatever he hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.
John 16:13 NASB