It is said the truth will set you free and in doing so unburden you from the shackles of a lie. I wonder if anyone every really thinks of the consequences of a lie before it is spoken? Speaking for myself, I was being more selfish than I was worried about the consequences from a lie I told. We all lie, and not a one of us can say that we always tell the truth, that in itself would be a lie.
Who would you be more apt to believe? A self confessed liar or someone who said they never lied? Personally, I would believe the self confessed liar. You know then that some place in what they have said they buried the truth in it and you already know that you cannot take what they say at face value. But for one who says they never lie, how would you know? We are asked everyday to accept what we see as the truth. That what we are being told is to be taken for what it is, whether it be from advertisements, friends or loved ones.
Do we think we are being believed when we lie to someone? Or is it that their faith and trust in us does not want then to think we would lie to them? Do we not think of what we are doing to them when we lie? So many questions involved with a lie, so many things to consider, but yet we do not give one of those concerns a thought. We just proceed on with our lie and then start thinking of the next lie we will tell to cover the one we just told. So life isn't the only never ending circle it is paralleled by the circle of a lie.
It is hard for us to admit when we have lied, even after being caught in one, we try to lie our way out of it. Is it our pride that does this to us or is it we do not want to seem less in the others eyes?
In the end, who is it that we really hurt? The one we have lied to or ourselves? In the end, it is ourselves we hurt, because eventually, after all the lies catch up to us, we lose all that matters to us. All the trust we have built is destroyed and only the lies are remembered.
If I went through life believing I have never told a lie, I would be a bigger fool than the one who believed the lie I told.
Later...
1 comment:
I don't agree with your opening statement.
In context, Jesus was asking his disciples to believe in him and affirm their faith. In the same speech he went on to say that "he who commits the sin is the slave of sin" and I think that part corresponds more closely to the sense of guilt emanating in this post.
When I say "the truth shall set you free", I would mean truth as in knowledge and of understanding that.
But the exposure of a lie or the admission of it is just setting others free from the lie. For yourself you wear the robes of disappointment and mistrust, perhaps elevating to condemnation and even ostracism.
Your penultimate paragraph is key here. Liars hurt themselves and there is no truth to set them free. Only to absolve them and forgive them can free them.
A drowning man will still cling to a sinking boat.
When a confirmed liar does tell the truth they are not believed.
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