PRACTICE: True or false? The truth will set you free.
Truth and deception are both costly but deception’s cost trumps truth in my opinion.
Deception is an investment with little or no return and sometimes even a loss of profit. Truth never fails to return an enormous but often delayed dividend.
A dividend is the distribution of profits paid by a corporation to its shareholders. When I think of myself as a corporation, I realize that I am the major shareholder. Others hold minor shares in my corporation – my life. Deception to self (lying to the shareholders about profit or loss/health of the company) may at first look attractive. The deception may feel good. The deception may even result in praise and adoration from the shareholder. This state of deception is hard to impossible to maintain long-term. The façade eventually falls like a house of cards caught in a windstorm and my corporation/ life is left in shambles.
Companies have been known to declare bankruptcy behind acts of deception.
In the world of high finance, those individuals found guilty of lying about the health of a company or paying dividends to shareholders out of its capital (short term fix to hide lack of actual profit), loose their position and or serve time in prison. Deception is costly and the fallout, personally and professionally, is not a good return on the investment.
Truth, on the other hand, may be uncomfortable to deliver, uncomfortable to hear but in the long run the integrity of self, professional and personal, is left intact. I think you will agree, deception imprisons, and truth liberates.
So, why do we have the potential to adopt the policy, “Why tell the truth when a lie will do?”
One deceptive act leads to another which leads to another and before one realizes it, a web of lies has been constructed. Like any good spider knows, a web is designed to capture and ultimately devour that which has been captured. The solution to a self-constructed web of lies? – truth.
What deceptive practices hold you prisoner– self- doubt, low self- esteem, addictions, self-sabotaging etc.? Extrication, while not easy, is as close as the major and/or minor shareholders exposing the practice, accepting the truth and executing a plan of action for freedom.
Proverbs 12:19
PONDER THIS THOUGHT---The costliest deceptions are self-produced.
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