Guinness Is Good For You

I had some Guinness yesterday morning and it was good for me. Not the black stuff, though my doctor tells me it is good from time to time. This was the real thing – Dr Os Guinness, great great grandson of the Dublin brewer. A social critic, acclaimed thinker and speaker of great repute, in his fifteen short minutes, he showed us why.

Given the briefest of moments to share something of significance on ‘truth’, not a word was wasted. In clearly measured and meaningful tones, Guinness reminded us that “truth is a person, not a proposition”. He showed us that truth matters and that the gospel truth speaks to our highest dilemmas and deepest traumas of society.

He gave six reasons why truth matters supremely:

1 – Only a high view of truth honours the God of truth. Truth is first and foremost a matter of

theology. Those who weaken truth weaken their view of God.

2 – Only a high view of truth reflects how we come to know & love God.

3 – Only a high view of truth empowers our best human enterprises. As Christians, we think in believing and believe in thinking.

4 – Only a high view of truth can undergird our proclamation and defence of the faith.

5 – Only a high view of truth is sufficient for combating evil & hypocrisy.

6 – Only a high view of truth will help our growth and transformation in Christ.

Elsewhere I’ve posted some frustrations that evangelism hasn’t always been central and the dominant theme so far in this congress. Guinness clearly illustrated that he believes in the importance of evangelism, and in his analysis of truth, he helped me see afresh the truth of the gospel and the importance it plays in the proclamation of Jesus. I don’t often partake of Guinness, but having drunk it in, I’ll be tempted to indulge more often.