They say that 'The Lord works in mysterious ways' and that is entirely true - at least for my life. When I think of some of the things and situations that have happened to me, I can only describe them as being bizarre and strange. Even the ordinary is sometimes just plain bizarre. That is true of homecell the other week.

After a long and exhausting day of work, I was really looking forward to some good company and a chance to just relax and be refreshed, but the course of life never seems to run the way we wish it would. It was one of those meetings where the leader says that he has got nothing prepared for the meeting, so let's all just pray and wait on God and see what He says. In these situations, my gut feel is always why can't we just eat, chat and maybe watch a movie. Especially, when you have someone like Pedro (remember the guy from a previous blog whose inappropriate comments had me imagining myself stabbing and pegging his tongue to the table with the fork I was holding in my hand), who you never know exactly what he's going to come up with as being a word from God. So, on the given command of 'let's all pray', we duly closed our eyes and bowed our heads and all began to wait on God.

I have to confess that I was very tired and having a totally off day, and although my eyes were shut, I was neither asking God, nor waiting and listening to what He had to say. In fact I was waging my own personal war against sleep taking over, by replaying the events of my last class of the day in my mind, so that I didn't disrupt the prayer meeting with an occasional snore. I had been teaching on phonics and pronunciation. After what felt like an eternity, but actually was only about 10 minutes, we were all asked what we felt God was saying. Having nothing myself, I did the usual avoidance tactics of pushing myself back in my chair and avoiding eye contact with anyone and everyone. After moving round the group and everyone sitting like mutes, I was the only one left, and I felt all eyes staring at me waiting for some pearl of wisdom to drop from my lips like honey. Responding to the desperation and insistence of the leader as to what I'd been thinking while praying, I finally confessed, I was thinking 'how much wood would the woodchucker chuck, if the woodchucker would chuck wood'. That was followed by another eternity of awkward silence.

"He's speaking in an African tongue." said Pedro, "Does anyone have the interpretation?"
"It's not an African tongue," I said, "And yes, I know what it means."

There were varied responses to my attempt to try and translate that into Spanish. Some people giggled. Some people covered their mouths and whispered into the ear of the person sitting next to them. Others just stared at me with their mouths open. But finally, true to his nature, Pedro said, "Seriously! Couldn't you not have made up something more interesting?"
"No." I said, "That would be lying."
"Well, it would be better than having people think you're an idiot." he replied.
"I don't mind people thinking I'm an idiot." I said, "At least people will know that I'm an honest idiot."

And thus was born our topic for the evening. 'Is it okay to tell white lies?' Surprisingly, our group was divided on the issue with some people maintaining that in certain situations and circumstances it was okay to lie, especially if it involved protecting someone. The puritans, championed by me, maintained that God is Truth and the devil is the father of lies, therefore it is always best to endeavour to tell the truth at all times. Should it be a tricky situation, the best course of action is to say that you are not at liberty to discuss or disclose that information. Others counter-argued that not telling the truth, when you know the truth, is the same as lying. Anyway, the evening was saved from going into yet another tarrying session.

So, what's my point? Life is so much simpler and easier when we walk in truth and speak truth. Lies perpetuate more lies, and eventually it's difficult to keep track of what we're lying about and maintain the falsehood. In Psalm 141:3 David had to pray and ask God to set a guard over his mouth so that he would not say something false or out of line. The prayer here is, that God would guard him from the temptation to say something wrong. To this he seems to have been prompted by the circumstances of the case, and by the advice of those who were with him. He did not want to utter any rash, unguarded, and unbecoming word, or express any fretfulness at the prosperity of the wicked, or speak evil of them; especially of Saul, the Lord's anointed, for the ill usage of him.

Let's try and live our lives in the same way. Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. And most of all, let's watch what we say. Honesty is always the best policy - honestly.

Have a God-blessed week.