Honest to God
Theme of the Week: Stick to Shooting Straight
Friday, August 28, 2009
 1 of 1
Key Bible Verse: Everything I say is right, for I speak the truth and detest every kind of deception. … There is nothing devious or crooked (Proverbs 8:6-8). Bonus Reading: Proverbs 12:17-22
Not long ago, I was supposed to meet a former student for breakfast. But that week I paid little attention to my calendar and totally forgot the appointment. About 90 minutes after we were supposed to meet, it dawned on me what I had done, and I called the student. He was forgiving, assuming that I must have overslept after a long semester.
I had a split second to decide whether I'd allow his assumption to stand. By saying nothing, I could let him think I'd just overslept. I could make up another story. Or, I could come clean and tell him I'd simply forgotten him.
I sensed an inner tug to lie or, more precisely, to allow him to believe an untruthful account of the event. Some might call it a "little white lie," which means a lie that we rationalize as insignificant. But it would have been deceptive, whatever I called it.
Not that I've never lied, but in this case, I resisted the inclination to deceive. I've been consciously working on telling the truth. I've become convinced recently that learning to live a fully honest life is one of the most difficult moral challenges I face. And yet it's hardly talked about in the churches I know.
—David Gushee in Christianity Today
My Response: Besides not telling lies, being honest means I need to …
Thought to Apply: You didn't tell a lie, you just left a big hole in the truth. —Helen Thomas (journalist)
Adapted from our sister publication Christianity Today (3/06) by permission.
Copyright © 2009 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integritymagazine.
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May your truth so live in me, Lord, that every form of deceit is wrung out of my life.
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