39. Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

[Yes, 4 years ago on January 12, 2007, I began my blogging journey with a post titled "One." and as I committed, since then I have spelled out the numbers followed by a period in order for each post with the same consistent format thirty-eight posts in a row. Yes, I am aware that breaking this tradition may hurt all 2 of you readers' feelings, but in an effort to be a little more creative and sort of "spice up" my blogging, here's to a new titling format.] [The previous statement was extremely sarcastic; however, it has struck a very sentimental chord in the light of my blogging journey. Please do not go back and read my first blogs in an effort to join my reminiscing though - they're very corny. :)]

Oaths (Matthew 5:33-37):

How many times have we framed our unwillingness, laziness, or lack of interest with an excuse like "I forgot" or "Something came up" or "Oh, I just have gotten to it yet" or, more bluntly put, "I know I should've, but I just didn't - my bad."

Or how about when someone shares their totally legitimate, from-the-heart burden and we say, seemingly with compassion, "Oh, brother, I'll pray for you," or "Yes, I've been praying for you and your situation," only to have just prayed something once or twice as half-hearted as, "God, help So-and-So in their situation," or "Be with them, Lord. Show them comfort and peace. Amen." I'm not saying that those prayers aren't viable and heard/accepted by God, but I wonder if that's what intercession really is. I wonder if that's the committed prayer and burden-carrying So-and-So thinks he's getting.

Let's face it, if we don't get direct personal benefits, we're not really willing to go all out. But because we're good Christian people, we like to appear humble and holy and willing commit to a half a dozen things and causes we don't really care for as much as we say we do and know we should.

Why do we excuse this untruth? Why do we commit to things, sometimes, while in the same thought that declares the commitment, we accept that we won't fulfill the commitment or we place it on the bottom of our priority list?

Who said that excuses actually excuse us from keeping our word? Yeah, there's forgiveness for lying or being dishonest or not following up (however you choose to frame it), but it's so easy to accept the cycle of committing, not following through, making an excuse, saying sorry, and accepting the forgiveness...rinse, repeat.

What makes it worse is when we make promises to God or "in Jesus' name" and then we think those promises are just as easy to smear forgiveness over and move on.

Jesus had had enough with this. He said in Matthew 5: Stop swearing on God, quit swearing on the world, and start making your "yes" mean yes and your "no" mean no; don't be fake - when you say you'll do it, do it like it really matters, because it does really matter. If your "yes" isn't yes and your "no" isn't no, what you're doing is evil. [The latter a paraphrase, obviously.]

So I leave this to ponder: Am I fake in my commitments, trying to pull folks' legs to look holier-than-thou? Have I accepted the cycle? How much am I willing to change? Or am I even willing to up the ante at all?

Jesus is tough on his followers.... He's called us to more than we think! :)