Are You Sleeping with a Beautiful Liar?

The best liars are the heartbreaking ones. The liars we desperately want to believe. The ones we allow close enough to drive the dagger deep into our exposed hearts.

I’ve changed.

I’m done with alcohol, pot, coke, that way of life, that guy, that gang, those women, that vice.

Yes, I’m taking my medication, of course, why? You can test me. I’ll do a test right now.

I’ll work with the therapist, the courts, my children, my family, this budget, your rules, of course, I’ll work, I want this to work. I’m ready for a new way this time. Last time, I just wasn’t ready but now I am.

No, of course, I’m not using again, cheating again, hearing voices again, drinking again, gambling anymore, going to that place, seeing that guy, visiting that site, missing appointments.

I know I said I’d go last week but you wouldn’t believe what happened. This week I’ll get to church, find a job, show up for therapy, be home for dinner, call that counselor, go to a meeting.

With every fiber, you want to believe their words over your gut, their story over those busybodies, their explanation over the photo, the text, the evidence in your hand. You want to believe them over your own eyes, your own bruises, your empty bank account, your Internet history, the acid in your stomach, the alarm bell in your soul that has never been wrong before. You know the plummet, like an elevator sliced from its cable that drops within you until you’re almost longing for the moment you hit bottom – but you never do.

If you believe them, if you just believe them, then the evening won’t be interrupted, the meeting can be positive, dinner will go as planned, no one has to change or turn down the path of change – that narrow, rocky, blistering, steep, lonely path of change.

They excel at stories and, you know, who doesn’t love a good story? There’s a hook, right in the opening. A line that grabs your attention. There’s intrigue, mistaken identity, conflict, tension, cliffhangers, pathos, comedy, tragedy, twists and turns. They paint with colors you’ve never seen, not even in the large box of Crayolas. Can you hear the music? They ask. And you hear it. Can you smell the fire? They say. And you do, your face almost flush from the heat.

And the story never ends. There will be a new chapter tomorrow if you’re ready to hear it, and even if you’re not.

You know what it takes to combat the liar who holds your heart? A better story. A stronger story. A true story. The liar sounds like the truth until the truth arrives and tell his side. There is an old proverb “The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.” Proverbs 18:17 And you know this Proverb is true because you’ve lived it, or at least, you’ve watched it on Judge Judy.

That proverb is exactly why we must continue to tell our story, those of us who know the truth. You see, the world has moved in with a beautiful liar who weaves a convincing tale at the breakfast table in the morning and over coffee at night. The world takes this same stomach-churning journey every day. Hearing promises over-easy with bagels followed by a plummet down the elevator shaft of deceit, listening to the beautiful promise of a different tomorrow whispered in the dark as ice is applied to fresh wounds. Tomorrow will be different and the world cleaves to the beautiful lie.

If there is no other testimony, the liar is the only voice and the world has no option but to believe the betrayer over its own eyes.

If there is another story. If someone tells the gritty truth. If someone bravely steps forward to bear evidence to a tale that isn’t so lovely, that isn’t easy to hear, that doesn’t warm the heart but instead, sets fire to the lies. If someone like that loves the world enough to face rejection, ridicule, wrath, scoffing, and hatred. If someone like that tells another story, then the world still has a chance, a choice, a flicker of hope.

The enemy of the beautiful lie is a steadfast assault of the truth.

Some people will choose the lie. Some will wrap themselves in the beautiful deceit, hold their hands over their ears and pull the covers up over themselves and the liar they love more than life. But let there be a choice to make. As long as we have breath, let us love well enough to tell a greater story.

Be the voice of truth. Tell a greater story. The true story. His story.

Are you sleeping with a beautiful liar? https://t.co/bueJsnYOEx how to defy the beautiful lie #amwriting #john316 #lovingtheworld #truth

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) April 30, 2016