Torch, Fall 1994

"How far is it?" "Oh, you drive for 15 hours and you wouldn't even be halfway there." In actuality, it wasn't that cold, it wasn't that bad, and it wasn't that far. What about not correcting untrue statements when they are made? We 're on a joint selling mission. Our selling partner makes a promise that is impossible to keep. Shall we correct him or let it go, because after all, we say to ourselves, we could come out of this pretty well. So we let it go. We get the business. But we lied. What about carelessness? Especially with our children. Samuel Johnson put this very well. "Accompany your children constantly because if a thing happened at one window and they, when relating it, say that it happened at another window, do not let it pass . Instantly check them. You do not know where deviations from the truth will end.... " Good advice. Later, the untrained youth has an accident with the car. The officer asks him whether he had his head out of the window or inside the window, whether he had his seat belt on or no seat belt on. If he has built up a 16-year legacy of being careless about issues of scrupulous truthfulness, he may simply answer whichever way helps him. You and I will have contributed to it because we weren 't smart enough to realize that careless talk is an evidence of telling lies. WHY DO WE LIE? What is the motivation for telling lies? In the Garden of Eden, the evil one lied because of malice and pride. He wanted to be something that he wasn't, and he was malevolent towards those whom he could influence. Satan tells lies because he hates God, he hates people who are godly, and he wants to extend his anti-God revolt. When you and I tell lies, we are often driven by the same thing. When we lie in order to impress other people, it is because of pride. When we lie in order to do somebody down, it is because of hatred. When we lie to protect our own interests, it is because of selfishness. The book, The Day America Told the Truth , states on page 45 that 91 percent of us lie regularly. The majority of us find it hard to get through a week without lying. One in five can't make it through a single day. We are talking about conscious, premeditated lies. Of the people interviewed, 92 percent said the main reason for their lying was to save face, and 98 percent said the reason they told lies was so as not to offend people. Now we don't want to be offensive to people, but there are times when telling the truth will hurt and will offend. The issue of truthfulness has got to direct us, not whether a person is offended or grieved. What about lying because of fear of consequences? I tell you this story because I recently thought seriously about trying to escape a daunting situation. It started when I got a pizza that cost me $56. The pizza was $10. The speeding ticket was $46. Then one afternoon about a week later, I was driving home and traffic was snarled. I thought, "I'm not waiting in that mess," so I did a right hand tum through the Pizza Hut lot, around Dunkin ' Donuts, and zipped out onto Highway 91. I looked in my mirror, saw the flashing lights, and was pulled over. I knew the routine. The officer put on his hat, got out of his car, and came over to mine. I rolled the window down and tried to look contrite. He started his speech about not cutting through private property. I blurted, "In Scotland, we all do that. In fact, in Scotland that's commended! Any run-of-the-mill individual can wait day in and day out in a big queue, but only the initiative takers can cut around a comer and zip home for their dinner. Furthermore, I'm in deep trouble because it's only a matter of days since one of you guys got me with a pizza. " He said, "Give me your license." I gave him my license and he went back to his car. You know that horrible feeling when you look in the rearview mirror to see if he's writing or not writing. I said to myself, "There's plenty of ways out of this. I could have been going for a pizza. I could have been going for donuts. So when he comes back, I'll tell him, ' I was going to get a pizza and I changed my mind."' Now this is called lying driven by fear. I knew if they ticketed me twice in eight days, I was going to need limousine service or somebody who would pick me up in the church bus. He came back and said, "You know, you were not exactly meandering through. You were flying through! So, it's obvious you weren't stopping for pizza. " I said to myself, "I'm glad I didn't use that line." I said, "Yeah, I was flying through." Then he said, "Take care, Mr. Begg," and gave me my license. We will never seek to tell the truth until we come to know the truth. We ' ll never live the truth until we embrace the truth. What is truth? That is what Pilate asked when Jesus stood before him. The reason that many of us are shackled by our lies is because we have never come to the One who is truth, who holds out to us the cleansing, the forgiveness , and the renewal that we need. Once again, the ninth commandment shows us we have a problem that we cannot, in and of ourselves, cure. It turns us to Christ who is all truth and all life and all forgiveness . Jesus is able and willing to take our lies and change them to truths, our deadness and tum it to life, our darkness and tum it to light. "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32 NAS). Torch 15