Despite being awash in information, it seems harder than ever to uncover the truth. This is troubling because when people can’t find the truth, they don’t know where to turn. They don’t know how to respond. They don’t know where to look for guidance. As a result, they wander aimlessly searching for it.
Yet, the good news is that when people eventually find the truth, they immediately know it because, as Winston Churchill said, “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.”
I have thought about this a lot in recent weeks and, in doing so, was reminded of a lesson my father imparted on me and my brother when we were kids. We commonly referred to it as “filling the bathtub”.
My most vivid memory of this lesson came after one of us lost something that was important to him. When he got home from work, he was clearly disappointed, so he sat us down and said,
“Alright boys. Imagine you have an empty bathtub and an eyedropper filled with water. How long do you think it would take to fill that bathtub if you added one drop at a time?”
Confused, and likely a bit scared, we replied,
“Uhhh…a long time?”
My dad replied,
“That’s right. A long, LONG time, but if you have enough time, you will eventually fill that tub.”
The two of us nodded in agreement as he continued,
“The same goes for trust. Each time you two do something trustworthy, you get to add a drop. Over time, those tiny drops accumulate until the bathtub is full. And, when the bathtub is full, you will have earned my trust.”
I remember thinking to myself,
“Got it dad. Makes sense.”
But he wasn’t
