Discovery.

What’s the first image that pops into your mind?

An artifact found in a previously unexcavated city? A lost treasure in the last place you searched? Information on the Internet? Evidence for an unproven case?

With discovery, we often feel excitement, relief, wonder, and vindication.

Yet, with the truth of these, we can also find the opposite. Lies.

That artifact in the unexcavated city could have come from small still-unknown village. The lost treasure may harbor flaws that diminish its intrinsic value. That information on the Internet may not be from a reliable source. The evidence for the unproven case may have been mishandled and inadmissible in court.

Excitement becomes disappointment. Relief becomes resentment. Wonder becomes disgust. Vindication becomes dread.

We don’t even have to travel to far off lands to make these discoveries. Sometimes, we just need to look under the bed. Or find a better website. Or search beyond the obvious for the missing clue.

Sometimes we need to look in the mirror and discover the truth that lies within us.

Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

James 1:23-25 NIV

Open my eyes that I may see

    wonderful things in your law.

I am a stranger on earth;

    do not hide your commands from me.

My soul is consumed with longing

    for your laws at all times.

Psalm 119:18-20