Truth Vortex

Back at work after the weekend of his school reunion, Nathan tried to talk to colleagues and friends about the meaning of life. Some furrowed their brows, shrugged their shoulders, and said they had no idea if life had meaning. Others insisted with a hint of desperation, “Life must have meaning!” An older colleague put his arm around Nathan’s shoulder and said, “Come on, man. Life's pointless—always has been.” He continued in an encouraging tone, “Don’t exhaust yourself like this. Life is to be lived, not to be understood or agonized about.”

Nathan frowned at his colleagues around him. They appeared to him like humans on hamster wheels: work-eat-stare-at-screens-sleep. Trapped in lives no one had chosen, yet no one could seem to escape. Nobody really thinking. Nobody questioning. Nobody trying to figure out what truly matters in life. Nobody viciously jangling the chains that bind them to this meaningless void. 

Since the night in the hospital after the horrific accident, the words of Socrates relentlessly churned in Nathan’s mind, “Beware of the barrenness of a busy life.” His soul and heart cried in protest that he could never return to be part of a mindlessly scrolling, hamster-wheel crowd again. There must be more out there. Life is too short for brain-dead autopilot living! 

He had to decipher what life was all about.

Worldview Questions

Nathan found himself at a crossroads, his thoughts teeming with questions: Is life supposed to be meaningful? Should it make any sense? Is there any chance at all that the different specks and shimmers of life could come together in a mosaic—a thousand jigsaw puzzle pieces built into a coherent whole? Or is life a scattered heap of fragments and slivers—a rummage sale or junkyard where any hopes of structure, sense, or meaning are imaginary and delusional?

His grappling with meaningfulness stirred more foundational questions in his heart and mind:

• How did everything in the universe really begin?
• How will it ultimately end—for me, but also for the universe?
• What is real, and what is mere myth and make-believe?
• What in life is truly important?
• How do I know what I know?

 Searching Truth

The question about knowledge and knowing opened deeper levels of doubt—a vortex that pulled Nathan in and spiraled him downward into overwhelming uncertainty:

• How do we know anything?
• Is there a way to know what is true?
• Can we know if the Bible is true? 

Driven by desperation, Nathan sent a message about his questions and confusion to the doctor with the radiating smile who encouraged him at the reunion. She answered from the opposite side of the world, sending an article by a wildlife researcher. The content fascinated Nathan. The wildlife researcher explained four different ways of knowing that are shared by humans and animals but differ in sophistication and scope:

• Intuition: newborn mammals know to suckle, and new mothers to protect
• Observation: animals’ sensory abilities can be astonishing
• Revelation: information received from animals or humans 
• Calculation: thinking, reasoning, logic, and testing
  

Nathan wished he could talk to the wildlife researcher, but didn’t have the courage to reach out. He longed for someone to reveal how life works—and what matters most—but had no idea where to find anyone who truly knew.

Doing her best to answer a fresh list of Nathan’s questions, the young doctor forwarded a song by one of her favorite musicians in the middle of Nathan’s night. She included the video of an interview with the same singer about his journey to faith. In the clip, the musician explained what he discovered during his own search for truth:

“The Muslims say Jesus was a prophet.
The Christians say he was an incarnation of God.
Eastern teachers claim they have Christ-consciousness.
The Buddhists say Jesus was a buddha, another incarnation of God, like the Buddha.”

The singer continued, “All these people are pointing to Jesus, saying Jesus is one of the ways, but we are also one of the ways. They wouldn’t agree on anything except that Jesus was one of the ways.” 

Something stirred in Nathan’s core as he watched the video. He watched again and messaged a single word back. Thanks! It was brief, but he meant it.

Nathan started asking questions about Jesus. He soon discovered that historians agree that he truly lived and had been exceptional. Nathan also began asking questions about the Bible, but the opinions he heard were all over the place. 

Some believed that every word, letter, and punctuation mark on its pages came straight from heaven. They were deeply concerned about people who had doubts about anything in the Bible—even details like the exact number of wanderers with Moses in the desert.

Others saw the Bible as a book of legends and myths not to be understood as factual or historical.

Yet another group insisted, “The Bible was written by people who sincerely wrestled with God. We should be inspired by their example and wrestle with God in our own age and circumstances.” They emphasized, “It’s not important what we believe, but that we believe.” 

The people he spoke to didn’t agree about God, didn’t agree about the Bible, and didn’t agree about meaningfulness. Nathan discovered: 

People who use different words sometimes mean the exact same thing
and people who use the same words
often mean different things by similar phrases.

He realized, with a touch of sadness and frustration, he'd outgrown the pre-packaged answers of his youth—spiritual fast food when his soul was starving.

The more Nathan thought—
the more he searched—
the more his uncertainty grew.
He asked himself again and again:

What is truth?

What is truth?

What is truth?

What is truth?

What is truth?

Cry for Help

The day Nathan finally removed the annoying neck brace, he also realized he couldn’t solve the problems whirling in his heart and mind alone. He needed wiser people to guide him, to listen to his questions, and to challenge him to ask better ones. He had to find individuals with vastly different perspectives—then ask, and ask again, until, from a myriad of responses, a greater answer emerged, like a panorama materializing from a misty haze.

Nathan began his search for potential mentors to help him along his journey. He asked his friends for suggestions and drew up a list of requirements:

• They had to be people who had seen more in life than he had.
• The mentors had to be interesting people from whom he could learn.
• They had to be people who were as different from each other as possible.

Nathan started jotting down names. He thought, dreamt, and prayed doubt-filled prayers all day long and into the strange hours of the night. He scribbled down at least one name daily and crossed out a few. After weeks of writing and erasing, thinking and praying, four names remained. No new names came to him. He couldn’t cross out any of the remaining four. He knew whom he would ask to be his mentors.

 Nathan finally gathered his nerve and reached out to the four candidates. He was fortunate: in spite of time restrictions and scheduling difficulties, all agreed. He opened his calendar and arranged regular visits over the following year. He would pay a call to each of the four every two weeks. Two appointments per week, every week, and countless hours spent traveling. 

The next day, Nathan took a bold step he’d hesitated on for years: he swapped his car for a motorcycle that had been catching his eye and picked up a set of well-crafted riding gear. 

It wasn’t just a purchase—it was a declaration. A commitment. A rite of passage. No cage. No doors. No seatbelts or airbags. Four voices to push him, challenge him, and shape him—and the open road ahead leading him to:

• Fisherman (Pre-Modernism)
• Scientist (Modernism)
• Artist (Postmodernism)
• Wildlife Researcher

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Ask questions.
Then learn to ask better questions.

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“What we think we know may not be the whole story.”
~ Michal Heller
(Philosopher, physicist & priest)

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