Last week at church, the speaker told a heart-wrenching 9/11 story. Some of the college students in the congregation looked up the story on the internet and found out it was actually an urban legend. Today, our pastor used this example to emphasize the importance of distinguishing truth and lies.
As he preached today, I thought about the story. It was indeed a moving story, but the "facts" were not facts at all. However, the lesson behind the story did not lose its value because the story was fiction. After all, don't we read fables, fairy tales and parables? Although they are works of fiction, they have true lessons to be applied in our real lives.
Therefore, I think it would be unwise for us to throw the baby out with the bath water anytime we realize that someone has told us something false (whether intentionally or unintentionally). Instead, we should determine whether or not there is any lesson we can learn from it. Then, we can discard the untruth, but we can still learn.
In no way am I condoning lies or the intentional retelling of urban legends, but I believe that if we completely throw away the morals/lessons along with the untruths we hear, we lose out on the opportunity God gives us to become better people.
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1 comment:
No joke, I was thinking the exact same thing when I found out it was an urban legend and not a true story.
At first, I completely discarded the story and its lessons. But after thinking about it more, I realized that the lesson still was important and could be learned by me, regardless of whether the story was true or not.
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