Seeking Truth and Principle

"The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable"

• James Garfield
  

Seeking Truth and Principle

If you're like me you're striving to live your life based on principles. I've found that it's the best way to live and feel at peace inside. Still, being a seeker of truth and principle isn't always an easy path.

Last week I was attending a meeting where the speaker was trying to discuss a very delicate matter. I watched him as he carefully worked to navigate some "dangerous waters." In fact, his entire presentation was off the cuff until he got to one point where is stopped and said, "I want to say this correctly so I spent a lot of time to write it down so the words come out the way I want them to."

As he proceeded, it was clear that he had chosen his words very carefully. It was his objective to present a difficult subject in a way that would teach and reach as many people in the room as possible. I appreciated his extraordinary effort. Yet, his words were not satisfying to me.

As he went on with his talk, I found myself becoming more and more agitated inside. It became so disruptive to me that it wasn't too long before my ears were soon closed; any principles that may have been presented were being blocked.

You know that I always try to listen to learn so I found this internal response to be a foreign one and have been struggling with it for a week now. I still haven't been able to reconcile the words or the principles being presented, but I've made some progress since I heard a quote from James Garfield, 20^th President of the United States a few days ago.

"The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable."

This statement rang true to me, in my current state, so I wanted to learn a little more about this obscure President and found that an assassin's bullet cut his time in office to a mere 200 days. Mrs. Garfield was at his bed side as his doctor said, "Mrs. Garfield, the President is dying." Leaning over her husband and fervently kissing his brow, she exclaimed, "Oh! Why am I made to suffer this cruel wrong?"

Now that's a feeling everyone one of us has had at one time or another! And, I fear that such a feeling will cause many to shrink at the prospect of facing hard truths from time to time. But, shall we give up our quest to seek and live lives of principle simply because it's uncomfortable from time to time?

No! Perhaps the greatest principle we must live by is the most basic; it is to live by principle. But, sometimes it appears as if it's not only the road least traveled, it's also the road most difficult to travel. All I can tell you is that it may be the road least traveled and it may be the most difficult to travel, but it is the only satisfying road to travel in life. So, encourage yourself to stay on this road by surrounding yourself with others on the road of truth and principle. Learn from each other and even carry each other when necessary. It'll all be worth it. I promise!