Revolution

Got Wisdom? Part 3-Everybody Lies

If you're a fan of the show "House", then you've no doubt heard this simple phrase on which Dr. House bases most of his medical practice as well as most of his life. Unfortunately, Dr. House is right. However he is incomplete in his assessment of humanity. I would say, "Everybody lies, especially to themselves." Sounds uber-jaded doesn't it? Yet Scripture & experience back it up.

Scripture warns us over & over again about deceiving ourselves. The book of James hits it pretty hard in chapter 1. James says that we're deceiving ourselves when we simply hear the word of God & do nothing with it. He goes on to say that we're fooling ourselves if we think we're religious but have no control over things like what we say & how we treat one another.

It's great to have Scripture to back up my statement, but in reality I've learned that "Everybody lies, especially to themselves." the hard way. No doubt you too can identify with this. Who among us has not convinced themselves that we were doing the right thing or that we could handle things in life? Meanwhile, everybody around us is saying, "Slow down" or "Are you sure about that". Oftentimes, when we lie to ourselves, we're the only ones who believe the lie. Oddly enough, it seems that not only does wisdom come from knowing & obeying God's word, but foolishness on the grandest of scales comes from knowing & failing to act on God's word. Ignoring action opens the door for lies that we would never believe otherwise.

If you saw the season finale of "House", you saw that even the smartest, most clever man could so easily deceive himself. How could that be? Because he, like us so often, relied on his own wisdom.
Our own wisdom only leads us into lies & deception, & it affects all our relationships, even with ourselves.