Good Friday morning! What makes up a lie? Why am I even worried about such a thing on a foggy Friday? Perhaps its the trick you often run into on Internet commerce sites. You know the one where an item page says "in stock", but when you go to check out the item is listed as "we ain't got none, and don't even try to backorder!" We run into situations fairly often where someone says or indicates that they will "be there", but when the day arrives, fails to show up. Are these lies or simply changes in stock or situation? As always, we should look at it from the other person's point of view. If an emergency or sudden illness occurs, a person might not get the time to notify us of their change in plans. Millions of people, at least the web site owner hopes it's millions, may be trying to order some item at the same time. Many of us know from our time at the big C that inventory levels can change moment by moment; kind of like my cat - here one moment, gone the next.
A lie is a deliberate sin; one in which we will have that moment of choice where the Holy Spirit reminds us of what we are about to do. A company that runs out of stock is not lying, but a con man who advertises an item, takes the money for orders, and has no intention of fulfilling the orders is a liar. A person who says "I'll be there!" but already knows that he or she will be at an appointment in Vladivostok at the same time is not telling the truth. Maybe the appointment isn't quite that exotic, but you know what I mean. :-)
We can also lie by deception. This deceiving is usually accomplished with what Scott Adams called weasel words. Not sure what he has against weasels, but there you go. A few years ago we had quite a few cases of deception from CEO's in the news. A spokesperson might indicate that the company had a "plan to become profitable", leaving out that the plan used dream interpretation, astrology, and wishful thinking to project reaching profitability around the year 2352. The company knew that turning a profit was a pipe dream, but led the investors into thinking that the imagined profit was a part of some five or ten year plan. Today, even though hundreds or even thousands of CEO's are quite honest, we tend to associate "CEO" with "crook". I'm even going to use it in my novels. A hundred years from now, if Jesus doesn't come first that is, a person might wonder why we assumed that all CEO's were crooks. An old timer might say, "We'll that's an interesting story. You see there were a few greedy corporations around the year 2000..."
Honesty starts with making the right choice. Trust in Jesus to guide you!
Bucky
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