Category Archives: Sin

Liar, Liar (Part 1 of 2)

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Most of us have seen Jim Carrey’s 1997 movie “Liar, Liar.” As a successful lawyer famous for twisting the truth to get ahead, his character repeatedly disappoints his little boy, Max, by failing to show up when he says he will. He even misses Max’s birthday, causing Max to realize his daddy has a lying problem. Max blows out his candles with a secret wish that his daddy will have to tell the truth for the next 24 hours.

Max’s birthday wish comes true immediately, and his daddy can’t make himself tell a lie or even withhold part of the truth. He stutters, stumbles over words, tries to hurt himself to avoid telling the truth and eventually makes a hopeless mess of himself.

In the end, he comes to see that Max is more important than business success, and the happy ending shows a truth-telling father and son spending quality time together.

Although the movie is hilarious, the truth of “Liar, Liar” is that the majority of people lie routinely without so much as a twinge of guilt. A new book, Tangled Webs (James Stewart), details the problem. He says lying was originally a crime against God, condemned in the Bible. But with time and a watering down of our spiritual commitment as a nation, guilt is no longer a pressure, and lying is rampant.

Mr. Stewart tells the stories of four famous liars: Bernie Madoff, Barry Bonds, Martha Stewart and Scooter Libby. These and many others have told the ultimate in lies, lying in court while under oath. Perjury is high-risk lying, and all four have paid in spades.

Interestingly, these celebrities didn’t get charged for their criminal behaviors. Instead they went to prison for lying about that (at least three of them, since one has only recently been convicted). Was lying worth their losses?

I can’t wag my finger at a liar, though, having stretched the truth many times. It was fascinating to hear the author of Tangled Webs wonder aloud during a radio interview where this “epidemic of lying” originated.

He assigned blame, at least partially, to parents not teaching the value of truth to children. But his interviewer said, “I think lying is in all of us.” She was right. We all want to make ourselves look good, and Satan, a professional liar, coaches us on how to do that. But God, the ultimate in truth, tells us there are 7 things he hates, and in that short list, 2 of them are lying. (Proverbs 6)

Scripture details the laws of lying: (1) if we tell one lie, we’ll have to tell more; (2) lying always hurts others; and (3) the truth will come out. Thinking of these irrefutable laws motivates me to tell the whole truth.

I want God to be pleased with me, not to hate what I do or say. And telling the truth is a sure way to win his approval.

(Tomorrow: the telling of a whopper.)
”Don’t scheme against each other. Stop your love of telling lies that you swear are the truth. I hate all these things, says the Lord.” (Zechariah 8:17)

A Secret Society

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Although some people designate the month of April for spring cleaning, at my house we’re making messes.

When Nate and I moved into this cottage full time in June of 2009, the house was ready for a face lift. Its colors were the same ones we registered at the Marshall Fields bridal registry in 1969: psychedelic oranges, yellows, and greens. After we got married, we stuck with that color scheme for about two years, but the Michigan house was stuck there still.

Our 2009 summer as new Michigan residents was a mixed blessing. We were glad to be here, but Nate’s back was bothering him intensely. Neither of us knew that very soon we would learn of his cancer, and our plans would be permanently altered.

But before all that, I remember an evening when the two of us sat amidst the boxes and talked of fixing up the house. I was all about paint and throw rugs, but he was thinking bigger. He saw new windows, air conditioning, fresh siding, even a larger kitchen.

About a year after Nate died, I was finally ready to begin on the plans we’d made together. We painted the rooms and laid down the throw rugs. At Christmas time we tackled the windows. This month our goal was to get rid of the last of the musty cottage smell by way of pulling up the wild orange, yellow and red carpeting in the sunroom. Because of former roof leaks and wobbly floors, everything beneath the carpet had to go, too, an interesting combination of several layers of wood.

After the floor had been rebuilt and prepped for tile, Drew started on the back stairs. As he pulled up the old, carpeted boards one by one, an odd-shaped space beneath the stairway and its two landings became exposed to light for the first time. Although we found storage bins that had been shoved into that small area, daylight illuminated what had been a secret.

A  cramped, dark place we thought had been useless has actually been of great use to quite a few others. Sweeping between the stair supports, I found a stash belonging to chipmunks, carefully stacked piles of dry dog food. Spider webs decorated every corner, many of them occupied, and mice had used the area as a bathroom.

When I came to a cluster of acorns, I wondered if Little Red and his squirrel-pals had somehow snuck in there, too.  And all this while we’d been upstairs, blissfully unaware of the secret society below us.

As I swept, I thought of my own secret places where tiny sins can move in and live without me noticing. That’s the way Satan wants it, quiet and ignored, until a secret society of sins has taken up residence. By the time I become aware of the neighborhood of nasties I’ve overlooked, it ends up to be a major eviction project.

While Drew continues to make a springtime “mess” toward home improvement, it might be good for me to do some internal spring cleaning… right after I call the exterminator.

“How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults.” (Psalm 19:12)

A Good Friday Surprise

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Spring is inching its way into our neighborhood. After a winter that’s lasted too long, the forsythia, daffodils and blue-bells are a treat. Ground covers are blooming, and once in a while we stay above the 30’s overnight.

This morning as Jack and I started our walk, the strangest thing happened. Half-a-block from home we saw a sad-looking daffodil lying on the road, dusted with dirt. The stem had been neatly cut at an angle, but there it lay without explanation.

I stepped over it, and we continued on. Fifty yards further we saw another one… and another… and finally several. The only possibility I could imagine was a woman setting her flower vase on the car roof for a minute, then forgetting it was there as she drove away.

Jack and I pursued our walk, but at the farthest point from home, it began to pour. We picked up the pace, and I thought of the mysterious daffodils now lying in the mud. Deciding to rescue them, we walked past the house, retracing our steps to retrieve the flowers.

Mentally creating an Easter bouquet, I also snapped a piece of evergreen growing near the road to frame the daffodils. After gently swishing everything in a bowl of water and putting them in a crystal vase, they were an eye-catching display.

Tonight as I studied my pretty bouquet, God brought an old memory to mind. Mary and I were little girls and Mom was teaching us to sew. “We’ll make sachets for your drawers,” she said. “Your underwear will smell fresh, just like the outdoors!”

She took us out and directed us to the same type of evergreen I’d put with my daffodils this morning. “Pick this kind,” she’d said. “It smells best.” She’d pinched a small sprig between her fingers, putting it under our noses to prove her point.

We stripped our branches until all we had were piles of green “needles”. The room filled with a woodsy aroma, and I still have the pine sachet I made that day, sewn with a nine-year-old’s crude stitching.

Tonight God revealed an important Good Friday lesson having to do with that evergreen. In order for us to be included in heaven’s promise, Jesus needed to be crushed, much like Mom squeezed that sprig years ago to release its good scent. As excruciating as it was for the Father to turn away from his suffering Son, it was the only way we could have experienced salvation. His death became a sweet-smelling sacrifice to the Father.

As I looked in amazement at my bouquet, the Lord whispered something else. “Although you stepped over the dirty daffodils and picked them up only as an afterthought, I’ve never stepped over a dirty sinner. None of them, including you, will ever be an afterthought to me. You are front-and-center.

And that’s why I died for you.

“He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Christ… has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” (Isaiah 53:5, Ephesians 5:2)