read by Stephen travis Pope--I remember clearly a personal letter I received that spoke of "the insensitive and righteous glory with which Christians seem able to bask in the message of Jesus without any need of commitment or sacrifice." To know the Truth is not to accept it by an act of the intellect, as a person may know the Greek alphabet, or as one may know his or her neighbor across the street. To know the Truth is, rather, like the way in which life partners know each other, to live a life of wholly shared commitment, of utter trust, of freedom from fear.

Indeed, there is no knowledge of the Truth where there is no commitment that results in significant action, for the living root produces living fruit after its own kind. We know the presence of love, not by sighs and simpers, nor even by desire, but by its power to lift us outside of ourselves, to allow us to live beyond ourselves. Honor is known by honorable actions. Beauty is known by its creation among us. Truth is not a group of intellectual concepts to be manipulated at will like the symbols in mathematics or the notes in music; Truth is living and life-giving, and those who have welcomed the Truth have life.

This is crucial: it is not that we discover the Truth and make it our own for our own purposes as we might harness a mountain stream to light our houses or run our machines. We are, rather, discovered by the Truth, and are given power by the Truth to light our souls. We are besieged by the Truth, which stands knocking at the door.

--Thomas S. Brown, "The Personal Relevance of Truth." 1955