TISTF

I’ve known for a long time that truth is stranger than fiction. (Even though I know that fiction can also be true, but you know what I mean and what others mean when they use fiction in that sense, meaning that what actually happens historically is usually stranger than what we can imagine in our made-up worlds, or in our made-up sentences which have no basis in style or clarity or succinctness.) I remember back to my early days of reading the Wittenburg Door, back before it was just “The Door” and back before it was glossy and back before it was loaded with self-promotion, one of my favorite sections was TISTF, Truth is Stranger than Fiction. Well, anyways (two of my favorite throw away words, and in some circles my signature mutterings) I’ve been thinking a lot about that proposition of late.

A few nights ago I went to bed and was handed the remote by my loyal wife as is her dutiful obligation. Within seconds she was fast asleep and I was left holding the power buttons. I planned to also sack out soon, but the temptation to click overwhelmed me and I clicked through about half the channels until I came across an odd sight. On the screen was an attractive 30-something woman with a clerical collar holding many different colored markers in her hands as she pranced on a stage in front of numerous white boards, each filled with languages other than English. I recognized the Greek and the Hebrew, but I did not recognize the other few languages, I think Aramaic and one other. She jumped around from word to word and language to language, showing off her amazing ability with foreign languages.

She seemed to be quite fair and accurate, as far as I could tell (for whatever that’s worth), but something didn’t seem right as she bounced around on stage. To me it came across more like shameless self-promotion than helpful teaching, kind of like my blogging. She kept talking about how wonderful the insights were that appeared before us on the white boards, and she kept referring to herself as Pastor Scott or Mrs. Scott, and referred often to her husband. I watched it to the end, hearing her make her conclusion and then sing a song she had written about Elijah. Although a little confused by it all, I was able to quickly, almost immediately, fall asleep.

As I thought about the previous evening’s program, it seemed odd to me that I had never heard of this lady or her husband. They seemed to have had quite the audience, and the auditorium was very impressive. So the next day, Wednesday or Thursday (I forget which one), I did some research online. I’ll have to write about that soon. It confirmed my belief that TISTF.