One thing I have learned in 55 years of being here on this earth, there is definitely a difference between the truth and a lie. As we celebrated Father’s Day this weekend I remembered a few of my late father’s clever little sayings. One being, “You can’t run from a lie and stand up for the truth at the same time.” In other words, it was always best to confront the lie, which would make you stand up for the truth. So, I learned at a very young age that telling the cold hard truth was best, even if it was difficult to swallow.
This made me think about the old story, The Truth and the Lie. It’s a story of the Lie telling the Truth that they should bathe together in a well because the water was so nice. Of course, the Truth was suspicious and tested the water first but ultimately discovered that it did feel nice, so they undressed and got in to bathe together. However, the Lie, being way too clever and deceptive, jumped out of the well, and put on Truth’s clothes, instead of his own, and ran away. Truth was furious with Lie, but when she came out of the water she only had Lie’s clothes to put on. However, Truth refused to be dressed as a Lie so she remained naked. When the World saw the naked Truth they were appalled, so she returned to the well to hide. As the Lie continued to travel the world dressed as Truth, it satisfied the needs of the World, making the World no longer seek the Truth. Since that day, the World would rather believe the dressed-up Lie than believe the naked Truth.
Sadly, I find this to still be true today. I see and know many people who choose to believe a lie rather than the truth. In fact, many strip down the truth themselves and reconstruct lies to be more righteous or politically correct. They swallow lie after lie, clothed in their own deception, not being even capable of recognizing the truth any longer. In many areas society has lost touch with reality, rejecting truth in their personal lives and in their professional lives. They are proud of “their truth” and they turn their back on the cold, hard naked truth, even at the reality of their own demise. The world has even come up with a game where you tell people two truths and one lie about yourself in an effort to get to know each other better.
I’m sorry but that’s strange to me. My daddy raised me right and I’d rather believe the truth. In fact, he didn’t just raise me to believe and tell the truth, he raised me to know the Truth – our Lord Jesus.
In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the Way, The Truth and the Life.” He also said, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32) Lying, on the other hand, has consequences and those consequences can be life changing. So even if you choose to believe the Lie that’s running around dressed like Truth, beware my friend. In the end, those lies will catch up with you. Remember, the Lie is a trickster and can fool the best of us.
This makes me think of another quote my daddy used to say, “You can fix a lot of things in this life, but you can’t fix stupid.” And I’ll add my own opinion that you can’t fix stupid or argue with it either. That’s because the Lie and Stupid are best friends.
