By Ajung Sojwal

My first coming-of-age story had to be the realization that truthfulness involves more than speech. “Be true to yourself,” was/is meant to acknowledge and affirm the one true self. Yet, the complexity of my inner life tells a story of multiple truths within and the idea of a one true self seems such a farce. Many encounters and experiences in life have challenged my notion of truths leading to recalibrate what being true to myself even means. Things embraced as timeless truths yesterday turn out to be obsolete today.

As I experience more of life, truths seem more elusive and I find myself asking what did Jesus mean when he said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” Surely, Jesus did not mean for us to use these words as slogan for wars to defend what we imagine are timeless truths. Jesus said this about himself in the context of his relationship to his disciples, which was about to change. These words are meant for those who have answered Jesus’ first call of “follow me.”

Too many relationships have been destroyed because we have misunderstood Jesus’ call to remain in relationship with him as a call to make proprietary claims about “truths.” The faith story of a timeless God incarnate in the mortal flesh and blood of Jesus, continues to challenge my every perception in life. It demands my attention to see and welcome the unexpected, to be at home with change and to trust the unknowable. It begs for me to find Jesus who could very well be sitting next to me or could just as well be living within me.

That belief in Jesus who is the way, the truth and the life residing within, pushes me to look at The Incarnation as something beyond mere event. It’s a movement toward relationship — Son and Father toward the world and toward each other for relationship. Timeless truths for me is not about relevancy from one generation to another but about the power to move me toward something greater than myself. In my movement toward wherever the ultimate truth resides, I come to terms with the only truth I can claim confidently, which is that I am a relational being prone to change as I relate.  As the great Indian poet and philosopher Tagore said, “Relationship is the fundamental truth of this world of appearance.”

Within the reality of my relationships I can dare to imagine truths that could be timeless. Maybe, that is exactly where Jesus means for me to find Him — in the audacious belief that He is incarnate in me as I choose to stay in relationship with him. The Incarnation is this relentless movement that transforms, and it’s timeless. It’s happening through every generation, in most unlikely folks like you and me. “You will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”(John 14:20)

Ajung Sojwal is Rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church in Hempstead, NY.