On Truth Telling

Have you ever told a lie? If your answer is no, I’d be willing to wager that you’re wrong. I know I have; sometimes without thinking about it. But usually my lies are calculated situations in which I weigh risk and benefit carefully. I’m not sure if that makes it better or worse.

Today I witnessed several lies occurring in my midst. These lies, some direct lies and some merely omissions of truth, affected me today. Indeed, some made me even squirm. I was not the one telling the lies, and none of them will have a direct effect on my existence. In fact, most of them were what a great majority of folks would consider “white lies.” But one got messy and someone might get caught. If so, the consequences will likely not be horrific. And yet it made me think: was it worth it?

Little lies, big lies, medium-sized lies. They are told every day in hundred or thousands of ways. What really is the point of lying? What lying isn’t is an issue of someone betraying another person, or who hurts whom in the process of the lie. It is indeed a matter of the heart. An honesty issue. A matter of the heart. Something to be worked out with God - if not today, then certainly some day.

So I pondered the whole matter of lies today. And not so much lies, as their opposite: truth telling. And ponder it I will more in the days to come. But as of now in my ponderings I’ve concluded thus: you will indeed reap what you sow and therefore I’m going to work on truth telling. I have found it usually is much more satisfying then telling a lie.