Tell the Truth - Or, At Least, Don't Lie - Part 1
This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally some form of artistic mark to tie it all together.
Today's devotional is taken from: Peterson, Jordan B. 12
Rules for Life: an antidote to chaos. Great Britain: Penguin Random House,
2018. Rule 8: Tell the Truth – Or, At Least, Don’t Lie, pp. 201- 209
Opening Thought: The first few pages of this 8th rule are made up of
a few milestones in Peterson's development where he discovered the fundamental value
of truthfulness. Peterson discovered, what many often believe but never put into
practice, that lying does not promote anything good. Lying is “taking the easy
way out”[1], and often this is a short-term
easy solution, it sacrifices your future self’s integrity and stability in favor
of short-term power, manipulation, or easement. The truth on the other hand is
the good path, often the difficult path because the truth is stark and unforgiving,
but oddly truth sets people free and is in the long term merciful because it
does not bind people to falsehoods and deception. It may take little effort to
outline the positive attributes of truth, but it seems it takes hard circumstances
to make people conclude that you should not lie. Let’s dive into the “why” behind
the motivation to lie.
Opening Prayer: Lord, help us to be more honest people. You are
the objective truth of all existence and beyond, so there is nothing we can
shroud from You. Help us to understand that when we lie, we just rob ourselves
and others of a better existence and push ourselves away from resting in Your
will and wisdom. Amen.
Scripture: Proverbs: 12:22 Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, but
those who act faithfully are his delight.
Reflection: There are many reasons why people lie. Sometimes it is to
protect themselves from embarrassment, or responsibility. Sometimes it to avoid
unwanted tasks or challenges. Sometimes it is out of malice and ill-intent. Most
of these types of lies people frown upon, even if they occasionally do it
themselves, they still don’t like it, especially when they are the victims of
it. Though, when they themselves get caught in a lie, they quickly fall back on
the justification of, “well, everyone lies”.
The one lie people seem okay is what we have deemed the “white lie”.
Lies that are designed to “help” or “sugar coat” things for people. I have heard
many arguments over my life, debating whether good intentions can justify a white
lie. I’m not God, so I cannot formally answer that question. What I will offer
is this, use extreme caution with this line of reasoning. The old aphorism, the
toad to hell is paved with good intentions, did not fall out of thin air
for no reason. As soon as you allow yourself to step outside the boundaries of
morality, even if you think it is for morality's sake, you make it easier to step
out again, and the next time may not be so well-intentioned.
The bible makes it very clear that God disproves of lying, I add
that the bible holds the position that lying is antithetical to God’s nature,
and therefore it cannot be tolerated at all. Psalm 101:7 says, no one who
practices deceit shall dwell in my house; no one who utters lies shall continue
before my eyes. Proverbs 19:9 adds, a false witness will not go
unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will perish.
The capacity to lie which exists in our agency as free-willed creatures make the world we live in a more dangerous and hostile place. We never know
what we are engaging with is genuine or falsified, which then, such skepticism
become a necessity to survive, but it makes it more difficult for people to
then become seekers of truth, and thus seeks of God.
Many Christians believe the devil would be focused on one
particular lie, being, “there is no God”. That lie is hard to sell, partly
because you must think about God first, to then deny God. And a devil would
never want you to give God any time of day, so it is easier to make every
little statement in the world a little less stable, with little lies, half-truths, and, yes white lies as well. When everything is disabled like this, everyone
becomes mistrusting and more prone to lying themselves, because everyone else
is. The devil never needs to destabilize the argument for God, he just needs to
destabilize the authenticity of the human heart.
Challenge for the Week: If you told a lie this month, own up to it. Go
confess to the person or people that you lied to, that you spoke falsely. Face
the music, grow up, and act stop lying. This challenge is not just for this
month, from this point on commit yourself to telling the truth. If you trip up
and lie instinctively (which can happen), admit to it right away. Lying is a
sign of weakness, truthfulness is the ideal behind strength and courage.
Prayer for your week: God, You are many wonderful things, but Your
truth is a foundation of all. You are our God because You’re the very essence
of what Is. You are the only eternal reality, and so we ask You to help us be
more akin to Your truthfulness. Help us to resist the temptation of lying and
false witness. Bless us and be merciful when we make mistake and help us to
own up to them. Amen.
Artistic Close: I use to love the story of Pinocchio. As a child, I had quite
the imagination, and sometimes reality and fantasy would get blurred. It made
me prone to make accidental lies. No one faults a young child for coming to
terms with this growth of conscience, but it was good to have this story that warned
about the dangers of lying.
https://lithub.com/is-the-original-pinocchio-actually-about-lying-and-very-long-noses/
[1] Peterson contrast lying to truth tell, the full quote is “Taking
the easy way out or telling the truth – those are not merely two different choices.
They are different pathways through life. They are utterly different ways of existing.”
See page 209.
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