I recently lied to my wife. Twice in fact. The first time she was waiting on me for dinner and called to ask if I was getting close. I said I was at the exit where the restaurant was. No, I wasn’t. I was about three minutes from that exit.
I lied again when she asked if I had put all the ingredients in her smoothie (and my wife likes a lot of ingredients in her smoothie!). “Yeah,” I said. “They’re all in there.” No, they weren’t. I knew I’d left at least one of them out.
You might say these weren’t egregious lies, but they were still lies and the Holy Spirit nailed me on it. He revealed that I flip little lies out there just like these and it undermines my integrity. If I tell a little lie, how easy does it become to tell big ones? I can’t say I’m a man of my word if my word is sprinkled with what I try to justify as “white lies”.
H.A.T. > Humble, Authentic, Truthful
That’s why as Christians we must remember to start every day by putting on our H.A.T. and that is to be:
- Humble
- Authentic
- Truthful
Let’s look at these. First, humility is the foundational posture we must take if we are to be followers of Jesus Christ. God’s expectation is that His disciples be humble. The Apostle Peter tells us to “humble [ourselves] under God’s mighty hand” (1 Peter 5:6), and that “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5).
Humility leads to authenticity. The Bible says Jesus, “humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). The dictionary defines authenticity as, “conforming to an original to reproduce essential features,” or as Romans 8:29 puts it, “so that we might be conformed to the image of his Son.” We become authentic followers – reproductions – of Christ when we humble ourselves.
Truthfulness in all that we say and do becomes a natural biproduct of our lives when we humbly and authentically conform to the image of God’s Son. Jesus is truth. He’d never lie about how far away He was from a restaurant or whether coffee had all the ingredients.
But there is an opposite reality if you’re not wearing your H.A.T.
If you’re not humble, you’re prideful.
If you’re not authentic, you’re counterfeit
If you’re not truthful, you’re a liar.
Prideful, counterfeit, liars are not followers of Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit taught me another lesson about failing to be humble, authentic, and truthful. It always ends up in my humiliation. I confessed to my wife about the smoothie, and she was livid that I would compromise my integrity over something so insignificant. I went and fixed it the way it should have been done to begin with.
So how about you. Did you remember your H.A.T. today? If not confess, repent and put on humility, authenticity and truthfulness. You’ll be glad you did.
Mark W. Koch is an Author, inspirational and Hollywood Film Producer. To order a Free Copy of, “The First Hour” for Men 30-Day Journey, Visit www.thefirsthour.com and use promo code NCF
