Two Truths and a Lie

Do you ever feel like you are living a lie? A lie that has placed you in a life that was never truly meant for you. A lie that convinces you that you are stuck, trapped and doomed. A lie that declares devastation and disappointment are meant to be the norm. A lie that brokenness and despair is a routine way of life. A lie that arrests your hope and imprisons your future is the norm.

Most of us know full well that lying is wrong. So why do we do it? Lots of scientific research has been done on lies and the deception it spreads. A study by Dr. Bella DePaulo and Wendy Morris found that good human lie detectors are likely to be good intuitive psychologists. They figure out how a person might think or feel if lying in a particular situation, then look for behavioral indications of those thoughts or feelings.

At the University of Texas at Austin, psychology professor Dr. James Pennebaker says deception appears to carry three primary markers: 1. Fewer first-person pronouns such as avoiding statements of ownership, distance themselves from their stories and avoid taking responsibility for their behavior; 2. More negative emotion words such as hate, worthless and sad as liars are generally more anxious and sometimes feel guilty, and; 3. Fewer exclusionary words such as except, but or nor, which are words that indicate that lies distinguish what they did from what they did not do because liars seem to have a problem with this complexity and it shows in their communication.

We may never know for sure each time we’re being lied to, but what we often forget is that lies corrupt one of the most important qualities of a human being - their excellence. Truth, honesty and authenticity are all intricately wrapped in excellence which means lying affects the ability to make free, rational choices as we pursue a life of excellence. Each lie contradicts some part of a person’s excellence subtracting from their moral worth.

Lies also rob others of their freedom to choose rationally. When a lie leads someone to decide something opposite of what they would have had they known the truth, the lie that was told has now damaged their dignity, identity and autonomy, and made them question the potential for excellence to be seen in them.

It’s as if you think so less of a person, you don’t mind insulting their intelligence and offending their instincts to the point that they don’t trust you and eventually as a result of your dishonesty, they don’t trust themselves to discern a truth from a lie.

And when trust declines, doubt spreads, cynicism repeats itself, and our overall quality of life drops - all as a result of lies.

Answer these questions and reflect on your answers:

What lies have you held on to from childhood, or from that period of discouragement, or from that low time in your life?

What about the untrue things you said or done that you haven’t forgiven yourself for?

Affirm and declare these statements:

I will no longer run from, hide from or deny the lies I have allowed to spread.

Lies have no say over life.

I am an overcomer.

Pray in petition to God to pursue His will and way.