Unshackled Moments ~ July 7 ~ White Lie Found Guilty

I told a lie about a week ago, to my mother even. I repented immediately and retold the story truthfully. But still it had happened. It wasn't a huge, horrible lie. It very well may have been the worse kind of lie. I have become suspicious that the innocent lie, the little white lie, is actually the darkest and most evil of all lies, because it is able to convince us otherwise. The innocent lie tricks us into believing that it really isn't bad and therefore doesn't have to be corrected, or repented, and the other person doesn't have to know, because it really doesn't change things much, or the essence. It doesn't really matter, says the white lie, and so we choose to let it remain believed rather than practicing rigorous honesty and living and walking in truth. In the end, the little white lie is a form of deception that we justify and excuse, instead of putting away from us all forms of lying for the truth.

My lie wasn't huge. Technically it could be argued that the words were true. Everything that I said occurred, happened. I simply move one event from before something to after it. It doesn't change the truth of the story, not really. All I did was place a little more emphasis on something to make the event sound even better, to sound a little more spiritual, to brighten the spotlight on myself just a little. No big deal and certainly not worth the embarrassment of repeating the story with the events in the corrected order drawing attention to what I had done. That would be overkill. It isn't that bad. And that easily, an innocent lie can justify itself.

But if it really didn't effect anything, and if it really didn't change anything, why did it come out in the first place? Why did we drop the white lie when the truth would have been as easy to tell? The innocent lie is not so innocent after all. It reveals a stumble, a slipping back into self. The innocent lie, the little white lie, is almost always a way to subtly justify what we have done, or it gives us a little more glory as we make ourselves look a little better, a little more heroic, a little more loving, a little more spiritual, or a little less petty, a little less vindictive, a little less selfish, etc. I just tell the story in such a way that without saying it I show you why you should understand and agree with why I did what I did. It puts the focus squarely on me and my actions rather than letting God have the glory.

That car pulled out right in front of me, and I came within inches off hitting it! I don't know how I reacted so quickly, but I avoided a wreck, and I didn't even chase them down and let them have it! I've sure made progress.

That car pulled out about two car lengths in front of me. I didn't really have any trouble not hitting it, except that I kind of wanted to, because it made me have to slow down to a near stop. They accelerated slowly, making me even more frustrated and angry and impatient. I laid on my horn for a good 10 seconds, you know screaming at them with my car, before switching lanes and whipping around them, cussing them out even though they couldn't hear me, before swerving back into their lane, cutting them off so they could see what it feels like. I didn't stop at a red light and get out to physically confront them or anything, which I guess is progress, but I acted a fool and very unloving. I should repent and ask God for grace not to act like that in the future before my road rage gets me or someone else killed.

Technically the only thing innacurate in the first version was how close the car pulled out in front, the level of danger. But the truth is the entire event had become shrouded in deception to change the impression of self that is made. But if we are set free from the bondage of self and walk in that freedom we don't have to protect or bolster our repetition. We can stop the old habit of trying to justify everything that we do, of trying to make  ourselves look a little more  or a little less anything or everything. Our stories share our experiences, our strength, and our hope in the grace of God to give us the ability to walk with Him free from the things that used to rule us.

When we tell an embarrassing story, or a story of our failure, it should simply serve to show that we needed, still need and will need tomorrow a Savior. We need to avoid the temptation to make it sound a little worse, to make the dungeon a bit darker. God doesn't need to be glorified through exaggeration. The truth will suffice. That overdose was serious enough. We don't need to have had out heart stop three times in the ambulance to make it somehow a better, more effective. The blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony are weapons of our warfare to  invade enemy territory and help set the captives free. The truth makes us free. Deception doesn't help. There is no such thing as an innocent lie.

We don't have to be cruel with the truth. Sometimes it might be better not to say anything at all. Looking for something loving or positive to say when asked an opinion is not deception. It is choosing to act in love, which fulfills the law. So if someone asks if I like their new car, there is no need for me to insult them or their taste in vehicles by telling them I wouldn't own it if someone gave it to me and surely wouldn't  pay anything for it. That's just mean. But I also don't have to, no, can't afford to, say that I love it when I don't. We don't have to justify what we have done when we tell a story. Our justification is not found in manipulation but rather provided by Christ. We don't need to make ourselves look better, or worse for that matter.

We can simply live the truth. It felt a little embarrassing to be in the middle of a story, stop, back up two sentences and reverse the order before continuing, correcting the telling of it. My mother didn't even seem to notice, but it made me contemplate the why of what had happened. I didn't even think about it beforehand. It simply came out twisted slightly to present myself in the best possible light, because I still  want to please my Mom and make her proud of me. But walking in the truth will do that far more effectively.

We are called to live lives of rigorous honesty. It is in and through truth that we have access to the grace of God to have relationship with our Creator and to walk free. When we are wrong, we can admit it without justification because of the truth that we are forgiven. Today, let us not try to justify or glorify our self by manipulating the truth in any way, shape, form or fashion. Let us hold fast to that which is true, and let us remember there is nothing innocent about an innocent lie.

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