Truth Ages Well

Some things just do not age well. For instance, anything produced in the 1970s, with a few notable exceptions. Babies born in the 70s are amazingly brilliant and beautiful people, but other than that almost nothing from the 70s aged well. Yesterday, I put a piece of cheese in my mouth and realized that although cheese is supposed to age well and makes cheese what it is in some cases, this cheese had not aged well. I spit it out almost immediately.

Something else that does not age well is falsehood, things that are not true. Sometimes people build their entire lives on some premise that does not hold true. Later in their lives they realize, “Wait, this has not aged well. It is not true.” Proverbs 12 gives us twenty-eight verses and all but three include the same word, the three-letter conjunction but. It is a conjunction of contrast, which means you have a list of verses about choices. Life is made up of choices. There are choices that do not age well and choices that do age well.

Proverbs 12:19 says, “The lip of truth shall be established for ever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.” So, a falsehood is momentary. It will be shown to be what it is given time. Truth likewise shows itself to be reliable. It holds up to time. Truth ages well. In fact, truth doesn’t age at all; it is actually forever.

Which has aged better, you or truth that you may have shared with a friend ten years ago? Well, you may have changed around the edges, but the truth hasn’t changed at all. We all age better when we age with the truth. Haven’t you met someone who is 30 but who looks like they are 60? That may be genetics, however, sometimes it is because of decisions. We make bad decisions which age us. We all age better when we age with the truth. That is because truth belongs to God. It does not change.

Wisdom is personified in Proverbs and claims to have been with God on the day of creation. So, truth is infinitely older than you or I, yet it hasn’t aged. It still works. It is still a help. If you have been any help to other people this week, it may be that you are tired, weary in well doing. Let me encourage you to not give up. Make the help you have been this week the habit of your life.

We have just finished a week of camp and at least three times this week I have been reminded of how well truth ages. There have been three people whose lives have been changed at some point in the last fifty years because of camp here at the Ranch. For instance, there was a man here this week who had come to Christ as a young man at one of my dad’s revival campaigns in a church in the northeast. That was more than fifty years ago. He is still on his way to Heaven today.

I have a missionary friend who serves with a pastor in Germany. He brought greetings from his pastor in Germany who was saved here at the Bill Rice Ranch. I remember giving him a tour of the Ranch some years ago and he stopped at one point in one of the auditoriums and said, “This is where I trusted Christ as a young man.” He trusted Christ as a young man. He now lives in Germany pastoring a church. God is using him. Truth ages well.

I have another friend who brings elementary-aged children to camp every summer and has been doing that for many years. He showed me a picture of a young man who just graduated from college this past spring and who is preparing for ministry. That young man was called to preach at camp here at the Ranch.

Truth ages well. Sometimes my body doesn’t age so well. Sometimes a prediction I made doesn’t age so well. Sometimes my style choices don’t age so well, but the truth always ages well. “The lip of truth shall be established for ever: but a lying tongue is but for a moment.”