Truth: It Just Is….

“Truth does not happen … it just is.”

I first saw that saying many years ago. It is attributed to the Hopi Indians.

During her May 22 address at the Mater Dei High School commencement ceremony in Evansville, Valedictorian Abigail Burnett offered another quote – this one attributed to Theodor Seuss Geisel … Dr. Seuss: “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”

There exists, on the Internet, debate over whether the good doctor ever said that. Certainly, I don’t fault Burnett for her attribution; there are any number of sources that credit him with the saying. But there also are any number of sources that report Dr. Seuss never wrote or said those two sentences.

Read those nine words again; then, contemplate this question:

Does it really alter their truth if he never had any part of them?

Merriam-Webster includes this as a traditional definition for the word truth: “sincerity in action, character, and utterance.” It also includes this: “the things that are true.”

I have no doubt that Burnett was sincere in her attribution of the quote. I also have no doubt that those two sentences represent “things that are true.” I am grateful she included them in her address.

Too often, we allow sentimentality – or maybe the devil – to replace our joy with sadness. We feel sad that some chapter of life is over; sorrowful that someone is leaving our everyday world.

In my opinion, feelings like these keep God from working fully through us because our joy is His joy.

Think about all the things you don’t do any more – regardless of the reason. Think about all the people you don’t talk to any more – again, regardless of the reason.

Contemplate all of the sadness you feel; now lose it … for good.

Replace it with the kind of joy that I believe Burnett wanted to leave with those who heard her words in the theater at the Old National Events Plaza.

From here, that joy is founded in gratitude, and we all must embrace and acknowledge that. In fact, I might suggest an addition to the saying:

“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened. Thank God because it happened.”

I hope all of our graduates – high school and college – will, indeed, thank God because it happened. I hope they will embrace God’s will for them, no matter what it is. I hope they will pray for the ability to hear God – not just to listen for Him.

I hope all of us thank God daily for His work in our lives. I hope we never take His intervention for granted, and I hope we never try to take credit for those achievements He makes possible.

Congratulations to Burnett and all of our 2016 high school graduates. May their lives exceed their dreams and, in the process, help them to embrace God as the source of it all.

May they smile; may they thank God; and may they remember that because of God, truth does not happen … it just is.