Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.

Proverbs‬ ‭12‬:‭19

Deceit comes easily, and once practiced, comes unbidden.

How natural it becomes to slide behind the lies we tell others, the minimizing of our using. As time goes by, the subtle but deadly shift happens automatically—we’re no longer lying to them, we’re lying to ourselves.

We truly believe the crap that comes out of our mouths—the excuses and rationalizations that we feed to friends and loved ones.

And mostly it’s done with a straight face because we believe it.

We won’t dissect our arguments or professions or excuses too much—perhaps in our true heart we know we’d find discrepancies. But we lunge forward with enough reasonable doubt in the deadliness of our actions to enable us to enjoy picking up the next drink.

I deserve it. What deadlier words are there? What evil won’t those mark with bullet-proof justifications?

If we’re lucky, this is fleeting. Yes, years may have already gone by. But if we’re willing, truth is eternal and unrelenting.

If we’re desperate, we can ask the most important thing—not for forgiveness (that’s a given and also a too oft-repeated chatter)—but for our eyes to be opened.

For truth.

The way forward is through our web of deceit and the only chance we have is with the gift of honesty.

We can’t do a thing till we square up with ourselves, and despite the shock, getting honest almost always brings the best sleep.

God, get me honest and help me stay that way.