Diogenes, the Greek philosopher, spent a lifetime in search of honesty. He finally concluded that an honest man could not be found. Totally honest men are perhaps not easy to find in any age, but they can be found. Honesty is not just the best policy; it is the only policy if you would live life with meaning and purpose.
So, I ask myself: Am I trustworthy and honorable in all my affairs? Do my words ring true? Do I speak the truth in love? Or do I fudge and fade the facts now and then to gain a personal advantage? Do I exaggerate for emphasis? Have I ever stolen something that did not belong to me?
Uh Oh! It was when I asked myself these six questions that I began to understand why Diogenes had a hard time finding an honest man. I remembered the day I stole a lead pencil from a store in my home town. At the time I was ten years old. The pencil cost twenty cents. My problem? I didn’t have twenty cents.
I slipped the pencil into my pocket and left the store. I couldn’t tell anyone I had stolen it – especially my father who would have punished me. He knew I didn’t have twenty cents, so I told him I found it. The next day Leo Jessup, the boy who sat in front of me in school, saw the pencil and asked where I had gotten it. When I told him I had found it, he claimed he had lost it. I knew he was lying, but I couldn’t tell him how I knew he was lying. We were both lying. Dishonesty always has to be propped up with more dishonesty.
- Hinson, the store owner, died not long after that. Before I realized how important it was that I go to see him, admit my dishonesty, and ask for his forgiveness, I no longer had the opportunity. When I get to heaven I plan to look him up and admit having stolen his lead pencil on that day in 1941. I admitted my mistake to God a long time ago and have been forgiven by Him. I learned a lesson I have never forgotten.
Honesty is vitally important in every area of our lives. This is true, first of all, because dishonesty short-circuits worship. The psalmist reminds us of this in one of his prayers when he asks, “Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary?” I can picture David pausing to hear God’s answer: “He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart” (Psalm 15:1-2 NIV).
Worship, you see, is like a mirror – it reflects our relationship with God. It does not matter whether we are participating in corporate or private worship, how we worship is an accurate thermometer that will demonstrate the depth and passion of our relationship with God. When we have an open, honest heart, we can approach God’s throne with boldness and total freedom.
The book of Psalms was the hymn book of the Hebrew faith. King David, who wrote many of the psalms, learned by acknowledging his sins, and by receiving God’s forgiveness for them, that he could be totally honest with God. He didn’t try to hide anything. It is why you will find every emotion from anger and confusion to trust and love only a sentence or two apart, and all of it was expressed directly to God. It is one reason the Bible describes David as “a man after God’s own heart.”
Don’t try to cover or hide what you are feeling from God. It is in learning that we can be entirely open and honest with Him that we begin to learn the value of being open and honest with each other.
So live your life that your autograph will be wanted instead of your fingerprints. “Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked” (I Timothy 1:19 NLT).
The Paper Pulpit 
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