The man screamed “Liar” so loud, and so unexpectedly, that everyone in the coffee shop jumped. Then he slammed his computer shut and stormed out.  Even though no one knew the specifics, everyone who watched could relate to the pain of being lied too.  

So, what’s the big deal about telling a lie? People do it all the time. In fact, it’s been proven that the more you lie the easier it becomes to lie.  This is because the part of your brain called the amygdala is less and less activated with each new lie, causing less of an emotional response.Interestingly, this is how liars are born: through practice.

Speaking of liars, the 1997 Jim Carey comedy, Liar Liar grossed 303 million dollars as audiences roared about a guy who simply could not stop lying. Today, there are songs about liars, books on how to spot a liar and blogs about dating liars. If you’ve ever watched a toddler pretend to cry, stop and look, and then cry again to get a parent’s attention, you understand how inherent lying can be.

Unfortunately, deceit in our modern world seems rampant. In the last few decades, it seems trust has become so elusive that we don’t even know which fake news to watch anymore!

In the Bible, we see that lying is as old as Satan, the father of lies, deceiving Eve. Lying is such a big deal that when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, number nine says, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” Then skip ahead another thousand years and you’ll discover that the Psalms are laced with the evils of lying. Just consider how Psalm 12 cries out:

Neighbors lie to each other, speaking with flattering lips and deceitful hearts. They say, “We will lie to our hearts’ content. Our lips are our own—who can stop us?” (Psalm 12:2, 4 NLT)

If we add confusion, misunderstanding, and poor communication to all this lying, we cannot help but wonder, what is the truth? In fact, truth can become so blurred in our world that some people argue, “Your truth is your truth, and my truth is mine.” Really?

See, the problem is that truth is different than values.  Gangs can say that they value robbing people or value protecting their street, but truth is something that transcends time, culture, location, economics and politics.  Truth is truth.  Period.  Truth cannot be relative. In fact, we even count on some truths, such as the law of gravity, in order to build and create. Airplanes fly because the laws of aerodynamics are true. . . and not only sometimes or depending on who believes them.

Perhaps we could take a fresh look at lying by considering a fish who peeks up out of the water and sees all the beauty on the dry land. The fish longs to jump onto a nice, grassy spot and lay under the shade of a big oak tree. But we know that crazy fish is lying to himself! When he flops out of the water and onto the grass, it won’t be long before he is in serious trouble. You see, to that fish, true freedom and right living means that he has to restrict himself to the water. He has to follow the “fish owners’ manual” in order to thrive.

In the same way, we were designed by God to live, to think and to act according to our owners’ manual that we call the Bible. And when we follow these truths, we find ourselves happy, at peace and content.  

Of course, we can always lie to ourselves and others as we go along. We can lie about who we are, what our purpose is, what is important to us, or what our end goals really are. We can ignore God and never even try to read the Owner’s manual as we decide that we truly know what is best for ourselves– kind of like that crazy fish.

The funny part, the amygdala part, of all this is that soon we will begin to believe our own lies. Telling a lie. Lying. Being a liar. Your truth is yours, and my truth is mine. How does all that really, truthfully, sound to you?

Perhaps the most important truth in the world, is that “truth” is actually a person, and that person is Jesus Christ. When we model our lives after the One who said, “Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice” (Jn 18:37), we get to live in his light and no longer in the darkness that deceit and lying brings! Yes – Jesus is the truth. And he wants to shine his light on you!