“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” ~
This is probably not right or kind; however, I take a certain pleasure in watching a liar squirm. It is quite exquisite to see someone who has told a lie become confronted. As soon as the questioning begins, the body language of the liar lights up. You can see it in the face, you can see it in the arms twitching and the hands wringing. What you are seeing is the person trying to remember just what it was he or she said the first time when a lie was spoken.
That’s right. Lying is hard work. In order to be successful, one must remember exactly what one said. That is not easy, especially as contexts change, as other people get added into the equation, and as the lie gets challenged. For a while, perhaps, the liar can finesse the story and get away with things. Sooner or later, though, the whole lie collapses in on itself. It cannot stand because it has been built on a whole lot of emptiness.
People often lie so that they do not get in trouble. They do everything that they can to keep the spotlight off of themselves. However, trouble is always lurking around the corner as they attempt to shore up their lies with other lies and still other lies. They find the burden of carrying the lie becomes incredibly difficult.
We might get in trouble for something that we said or did; but, if we are honest, the “pain” is momentary, we learn from what we did or failed to do, and we move on. Liars cannot move on. They are always reliving the past so that they can keep the stories straight and current.
Mark Twain was so right. “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” Forget the plotting. Forget the squirming. Forget piling story upon story. Just come out with the truth, accept the consequences, and feel relief that you do not have to keep perpetrating a falsehood.
FAITH ACTION: Make a firm intention to be truthful in all matters as you go about your day.