PREPARATION

I am troubled about what seems to be a growing honesty deficit. Have you noticed how scarce authentic honesty is in our culture? While our politicians work on increasing our national spending deficit, why don't we work on decreasing the deficit that is breeding rampant distrust, the honesty deficit?

Dishonesty is everywhere. It appears as concealing the truth, distorting the truth, or misleading interpretations of the truth. There is corporate dishonesty, spiritual dishonesty, malicious dishonesty, intellectual dishonesty, academic dishonesty, lack of integrity, crookedness, deviousness, trickery, underhandedness, and the list does on.

Regardless of what you call it, to work on it we have to unpack our intentions. It is all about our intent, and our faith is at the core of our intentions. Faith takes us to ground zero and tears away our pretending, our false front, our make-believe, our dishonesty. To be real our faith requires us to come clean, to be our real self, to trust God to transform our intentions.

The Apostle Paul told the Ephesian church that they were to be these Real People. "...we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.  Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ." Eph. 4:14-15 NLT

Faith in action transforms us, it matures us, it engages our intentions and makes us real. The way I see it, only faith-filled people have the power to be genuinely honest. That's why believers have the power to speak the truth in love... So, do we?

INSPIRATION

Charlie’s whole family loved peanut brittle. You could eat peanut brittle on Saturdays, but only on Saturdays. It was a family rule.

Around 11 on Friday night Charlie got a powerful craving for peanut brittle. He rationalized his situation. He, after all, was the one who made up the rule. He considered it a technicality, since it was after 12 already in the Eastern Time zone. And, he knew how to get in the bag and reseal it so no one would know.

Once into the bag, he enjoyed every bite.

Next morning no one suspected a thing. He had gotten away with it. But his conscience tormented him. Late Saturday night he realized he would have to confess his sin, but when? After all, it was a little thing.

After church seemed like a good time, but he was distracted by the mysterious disappearance of a cake that his wife had placed in the refrigerator Saturday afternoon. Neither Randy, nor Elizabeth seemed to know anything about it. Then, more distractions happened Sunday night and Monday night he was gone for the evening. So, Tuesday night Charlie called a family meeting in Elizabeth’s room just before her bedtime prayers.

Charlie told the story of breaking the rule—eating the peanut brittle—and asked the family to forgive him. Quite a discussion about what kind of punishment he should be given ensued, followed by a surprising revelation by Elizabeth.

The sensitive 6-year-old quietly reached under her bed and produced what was left of the missing cake. She confessed that she had taken it for a spur-of-the-moment party for the new twins down the street. The new boys’ parents were so busy moving furniture and boxes into the new house, they had forgotten the birthdays.

“Mom, I’m sorry. I thought we would just eat a little, but then I couldn’t squish it back together. So, I hid it under by bed and I’ve been eating on it.”

Then she looked up at her dad and said, “When you told about the peanut brittle, I had to tell about the cake.”

MOTIVATION

Journaling keeps us honest to God and honest with ourelves. Writing about our journey forces us to keep our eyes open to God's fingerprints in our lives. In the writing HE reminds us to stay honest to ourselves and to him. When we mess up, God uses our journal as a blue-print for action.   

The Holy Spirit already knows about your lies and cover-ups and dishonesty, so your confession is just getting you and God on the same page, admitting in your heart what HE already knows in his. And, after all, that's the best example of honesty I know of... "God and I agree."