From one culture to another the interpretation of lying is very different and viewed with different perspectives on its morality or lack of it.
Is it moral to lie sometimes?
Varied cultures answer the question very differently ; Is it right to lie to save someone’s life, health, reputation, money, job, marriage, or feelings?
While we are all uncomfortable with situational ethics , we all lie at varying degrees more often than we are probably willing to admit.
You doubt me?
Or you think I’m lying?
If you doubt me ask yourself; do you always tell someone the truth when they ask your opinion about something important to them?
Their newest piece of fashion?
The new décor in their home?
The gift that they bought you?
The list of inconsequential lying goes on and on and seems trivial. It probably is.
Perhaps the worst lies that seem the least trivial but are actually the worst, are those we tell to ourselves. And we are masters at it.
Most of us try hard and genuinely work at being truthful, especially to those we care about. Yet to the person I should love the most, my own soul, I lie. All the time!
We’ve seen the people on talent shoes who are awful and yet they have managed to construct a monster lie, that they are the next great talent, when it is evident to millions of viewers and judges alike, that they are not. And we laugh at the absurd nature of it.
Are you guilty of absurd lies to yourself?
I lie to myself about the politician who supports my views, that he or she is the next perfect savior. Whilst I ignore how obviously flawed or imperfect they quite clearly are.
I lie to myself that my ethics at work are flawless and I have never stolen as much as a paper clip while I steal time from my employers, almost every day. (Internet anyone?)
I lie to myself that I am a good person, better than most, as I judge their stupid behavior. And in that very judgment against the rest of humanity I make a bare faced contradiction, and prove that I am not at all better than them. But I wont admit to that would I?
These lies told to my self may too be quite trivial and hard to avoid. But they point to one truth that I dare not lie to myself about. I am a broken individual, with a glaringly obvious need for a savior.
Not just a savior from my lies and the negative outcomes of them. But I need a savior from myself.
A savior who can guide me to the truth about lies and liberate me from those that are not so trivial. Lies like:
I don’t need God, I can do this myself.
I don’t need to change, you do.
At least I am not …… (fill in the blank.)
All such self-deception stunts me from being the person that I am at when I am my very best. And a person who is growing, flourishing and expanding in life.
There was a man who prayed an honest prayer and Jesus said he went home justified. That prayer was. ‘God have mercy on me, a sinner.’
That is a prayer which reveals a heart fully aware of the truth about itself nd the truth about God. Namely; I am not right but He can forgive me and make me right. Right with Him.
After all Jesus did say , ‘….the truth will set you free.”
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