Mary had trouble getting the
apostles to believe her resurrection tale.
They figured she was telling a story.
I’ve gotten the same look from people when I tell them I know a dead man
that got out of a tomb.
I love the story about the
little boy who just couldn’t manage to tell the truth. His mother got so frustrated she called the family’s
preacher. The preacher decided he’d tell
the boy a whopper so the little boy could see how silly you look when you’re
lying.
“Son, I was in town the
other day” began the preacher. “And this
old yellow dog came up to me – at least I think he was a dog. He had a head like an alligator and a tail
like a duck. His feet were like a
chicken, but the dog actually talked like a man. He told me a story how he went to Chicago one
day and then flew (Oh yeah…he had wings too), he flew alongside a Boeing-767 to
Paris for the night and the next morning he raced a Concorde flight back home;
he said he won the race. While that
yellow dog was tellin’ me this an elephant passed by and the dog ate him. Durndest thing I ever saw. What do ya think about that?” “Preacher,” the boy said, wide-eyed, “that
was my dog.”
We live in a culture that is
dominated by untruth. According to research
reported by The Discovery Channel[1] lying
first begins around age 2-3. Mostly it
is for the purpose of avoiding punishment (I didn’t take that cookie…even though
there are crumbs lining the lips that are denying the heinous crime!).
The truth about lying is
that it tends to metastasize, grow like cancer.
In
psychological studies 4 year-olds fibbed about once every two hours; it
only takes 6 year-olds 90 minutes to tell a lie (on average). But, in a 10 minute conversation between
strangers, adults lie (on average) about 3 times. If you do a bit of simple math that’s 18
times an hour! At that rate the average
adult, in just two hours of conversation a day, lies between 12 and 13,000
times a year!
That’s a lot of talking yellow-dog-alligator-chicken-ducks!
How did we
get this way?
The “idle tales” of human
discourse have a root, the father of which is named in Scripture:
When he lies, he speaks according to his own
nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. John 8:44b (NRSV)
Jesus was debating with the
religious leaders when he said this, and he was referring to Satan as the
father of lies. That is in contrast, of
course, with the characterization of Jesus as truth (John 14:6).
So, to do another little bit
of simple math here, the more you lie, the closer you are to your father in
hell; the more you live in truth, the closer you are to the Father in heaven.
When you lie you’re close to home, but is it the home you want?
Today…for you
If, in your pilgrimage through this life you want to
draw closer to walking with Jesus, you’re going to have to walk in truth.
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