“There are a great many meaningless men in the community, and what that means is that, while they have the intelligence to understand an idea and the heart to feel it, yet the idea never gets so close to them as to have its reality tremendously experienced by them. We do not win our strength and stability by mastering ideas, but by being mastered by them — held in their grip. A man never really knows what there is in him, how much he can do, or how much he can withstand, till he gets fairly in under just such governance. I am convinced that there is nowhere nearly the amount of difference between people in point of personal caliber that is ordinarily supposed. It is not so much a difference in personal capacities and energies as it is a difference in the degree in which those energies become packed upon one another and reduced to solidity. Even on a cold day one can pick up a sunbeam and burn a hole through white oak with it if the lens with which the beam is focused is in good order…The trouble with people, nine out of ten of them, is that they stand on insulators and watch the play of the lightning through drawn shutters, and never stand out and let the electric storm play in their own bosoms. It is by an inward experience of the storm that men can be held fast in the midst of the storm. Nerve varies inversely as the square of the distance that there is between us and the reality we are handling.” – Charles H. Parkhurst

Every idea you encounter will either be a truth, a half truth or an untruth. To the degree that you give yourself to half truths or untruths, you remain bound in ignorance. Conversely, when you discover a truth and remain faithful to it, you begin to live in the light of understanding.

The truth, unlike the forms it gives rise to that we call information, cannot be intellectually mastered. In fact, the experience of truth comes as you yield to it in heart and in mind; not by simple mental exercise. You can see the truth in everyday life experience, in each presentation of beauty, for instance, for the truth is always beautiful. There are no ugly truths, just ugly, fleeting facts.

When you perceive a truth you can bask in it, giving yourself to it so fully that you are consumed momentarily by it. So doing allows you to see and feel the all-of-truth that sits behind and above every unique focus of truth. No matter how small the truth you perceive may be, you can rest assured that it presents an aperture and a direct connection to the whole body of truth.

The point is that if you wish you know the truth you must take the time to smell the proverbial roses, to relish the essences of truth which waft through your experience from day to day. It will happen at work, at play, in worship and even in your sleep. The best part about it is that the moment you begin yielding to the truth is the moment that you start living, truly living.