Ryan Dobson Chapel – March 1, 2023
By Madelynn Bryan
Madelynn Bryan is a sophomore at Christian Unified High school and is an editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper. She enjoys writing and takes an interest in political science. She is very excited to be writing for the school’s newspaper and uses it as an opportunity to spread the word of God.
As an author of six books and a host on his and his wife’s top 20 podcast called Rebel Parenting, Ryan Dobson delivers an extraordinary message about truth and God’s love to the students at CHS. He highlights the beauty and the struggles of being in a family, and how these struggles can be overcome through God.
Ryan is the son of Focus on the Family founder Dr. James Dobson. Focus on the Family is a Christian ministry dedicated to helping families thrive by providing help and resources for couples to build healthy relationships that are beneficial to their family as a whole.
He begins his talk by stating the two points he wishes to convey to the students. He wants people to know that they can always rely on God in any situation, and how to experience God’s love in a brand new way that they have never experienced before. He first uses an example, where he takes the Bible in a worldly context and then counters it by explaining how scripture should be interpreted.
He says, “And Jesus said to his disciples, go forth into the world teaching all men to live in any way they choose and urge each [of them] to find his or her own path to God. Let not any one of you make someone feel inferior or victimized because of their beliefs, but above all, be tolerant. Verily, barely saying to you that what you believe and how you live don’t matter, just as long as you’re sincere. Then, leaving that place, Jesus led his disciples to the upper room where they broke bread, and he addressed them saying I am one of the ways. I am one of the truths. I am one possible life.”
Ryan explains that this is how the world lives every day. The world makes it out that there is such a thing as “my truth, and your truth,” despite the solid fact that there can only be one truth. In today’s more liberal culture, it is seen as empathetic and kind to respect other people’s truths, while individualistically having your own truth. However, Ryan tells the students that truth is not something that we discover for ourselves based on our own feelings. The truth is something definite, and much bigger. The truth is something that we can be brought to, if we allow ourselves to be. He expands this point by recounting a time when he was on a plane, and he met someone who had very different views about truth.
“He said something I had never heard, and I’ve never heard since… He looks at me and goes, “Oh, Ryan, I don’t believe in truth.” Like, excuse me? I asked him, well what does that mean, and he goes, “I don’t think it exists. I think I have a truth, and you have a truth. We can have our own beliefs and we can get along and we can always compromise.” I was like, wow, can I ask you questions about that and he says sure.” After a series of questions, it turns out the man really did have a few things he believed were right and wrong.
The man was an atheist, who didn’t really believe in any sort of truth. As a Christian however, Ryan knows that there is only one definite Truth, God’s word. Everything in the universe is found in Christ as the Word. Only God knows everything, therefore we need to be reliant upon Him for guidance in life. Just as it says in John 8:32, “Jesus said, if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know that truth, and the truth will set you free.” When you have the Truth in your life, you can go through anything and emerge stronger, and with a better faith in God. Ryan Dobson continues to tell the students about how the Truth has helped him in his life when his wife got cancer.
“I had never dreamed of the future and realized that I’d have to go through cancer with my wife… It’s terrible, cancer is the worst. I never imagined I could go through it and here’s the truth: the Lord was with me every step of the way. Every step of the way his arms were around me. Did I feel it? No, I did not. I felt scared, I felt sad, I felt angry, but I did not feel God hugging me. But it was my fault, not his. Did you know that God can’t love you anymore than he does already? He also can’t love you less than he does already. His love is incomprehensible.”
