True Story.

At my old house, my neighbor and I got into a major argument I’ll never forget. It was about the location of a house near us that we both knew had just gone up for sale. We both described the house with the big tree in the front yard to be sure we were talking about the same one.

I said it was just past the river.

He said it was just before the river.

This went back and forth for a few moments until a simple disagreement nearly turned into fists being thrown. Before we each got a black eye, we decided to settle it by getting into my truck and driving there to see who was right.

Upon approaching the house, we began to realize the truth of the matter.

I was speaking about the house in terms of heading into town. He was speaking about the house in terms of coming home from town.

Same house. Same location. But spoken about from different perspectives that we both had arrogantly deemed as ultimate truths. We were so preoccupied with being proven right, we never once honestly or humbly sought the other’s perspective.

Thus, my friends, is a picture of where we are as a society.

No matter how great of an argument you think you have about why your views are more virtuous than your neighbor’s, just remember—people speak and see things from different vantage points. This doesn’t diminish Objective Truth, but it does show that your truth isn’t inherently right.

We both found the Truth together by actually being together and going to the house together. Unfortunately, we don’t do this anymore. Rather, we sit behind phones and keyboards and judge one another from afar based upon echo chambers our online world keeps us in.

Laughing it off, we went home. Grabbing a cold Coke for each of us, we sat on the back porch still enjoying the banter about who was right, but now we did so as neighbors again, not as enemies.

And for the record – the house was just past the river.