During my freshman year at Baylor, I answered a phone call from a girl who wanted to talk to my roommate. He didn’t want to talk to her for some reason, so he told me to tell her he wasn’t there.

“I’m not going to lie for you, dude,” I told him.

He was shocked, as if no one had ever told him that before. I was a bit shocked myself. No one had ever asked me that before.

I’d be lying (ha!) if I said I’d never lied before, but it’s been rare. I try hard to tell the truth and expect others to do the same. If I catch you lying to me or to someone else, even if you think you’re doing me a favor, I lose respect for you. Honesty is not a matter of convenience.

A friend of mine was scheduled to work this morning, but this person told me in advance that they planned to call in “sick” today because family was in town. I rarely confront people, especially in person, when I disagree with something they’re doing, and I didn’t say anything. However, due to sick calls and other issues, today we had several open shifts at work that needed to be covered via overtime. We used up all the people who had volunteered for overtime but still had one morning shift open. The superintendents called every legal person who hadn’t signed up. No one took the shift, and the desk remains uncovered. This is very rare. Guess which desk I’m planning this morning? Yep. So because my friend chose to lie, I have no relief, and a manager has to come in early to reassign the workload from the uncovered desk to other people who chose to be honest and come to work.

After some debate, I emailed this person about what had happened. I wanted them to know that one of the people they hosed was me.

If you always tell the truth, you don’t have to keep all your lies straight. Life is much simpler that way, and less stressful, too. I think Jesus said it best:

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. – John 8:32