The truth

First of all, let me say that everyone lies.

It is a fact of life - that daily - we are challenged as to whether we are going to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

As Christians, it is almost always true that we do not intentionally, with premeditation, lie, it is that many times we simply do not tell the truth.

It is called being disingenuous.

"The check is in the mail".

"I am praying for you."

"Leave your resume and we will keep it on file."

"This hurts me more that it hurts you."

"Your table will be ready in five minutes."

"Open wide, it won't hurt a bit."

"Let's have lunch sometimes."

"It is not the money, it is the principle of the thing."

"I am only concerned about how it will hurt other people."

And, I can't resist, it being the political season, saying that politicians are the masters at this.  They may not lie, but they are adept at not telling the truth.

There is the story of a man who didn't want the kids form the neighborhood eating his watermelons.  So he put up a sign in his yard.  It simply said, "One of these watermelons is poisonous."

Now, none were poisonous, but he said, "One of these watermelons is poisonous."

Obviously, the kids, not knowing which one was bad, would not steal his watermelons and eat them.

Now, none were poisonous.  The man liked in an attempt to protect his crop from the thieves.

He came out the next day and, much to his chagrin, he saw the word ONE crossed off and the word TWO in its place.

Now he'd lost this whole crop because he had no idea which watermelon the kids had messed with.

What is the moral to the story?  Lies have a way of coming back around.

Perhaps what we need to do is to not just focus on not lying - but on better ways to tell the truth.

Just a though for a Tuesday.