Fake News or Deepest Truth?

Reporters are trained to cover the 5-Ws (Who? What? Where? When? Why?). They're good questions for making sense of human drama. But I'm convinced too much focus on the 5-Ws detracts from our spiritual power.

Focusing instead on deeper questions of purpose and potential, allows us to redirect energy from perpetuating drama to creating fuller, freer lives.

Consider the New Testament story of the woman taken in adultery and brought before Jesus to be stoned. He gives no energy to questions of, "Who did what to whom, when and where," effectively sidesteping the blame, shame and drama of 5-W fact-checking.

Instead he challenges her accusers, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." Once the vigilantes have left he advises the woman, "Go and sin no more."

Jesus' rejoinders shift both accused and accuser focus from outer conditions and projections to inner reflection. It's a shift that's necessary in order to grow in awareness and understanding.

So when drama arises, as it does in all our lives, here are five questions to consider in addition to (or perhaps instead of) the 5-Ws:

•    What in this situation is a trigger for me?
•    What can I learn?
•    Where's the blessing?
•    What changes will align me with the divine?
•    What's the most loving response?

May they reveal the deepest truth in the stories of your life.