Day 313- Lie Gap

When I was in high school I had a friend named Jeffery. Jeffery rarely told the truth about anything and he would often find himself tangled in a web of lies that he couldn't escape. He wanted to stay the night at my house one evening so he called his mom and told her that he got a job with my grandpa that would require him to get up early in the morning. He told her that he needed to stay the night so that she did not have to get up early and take him to work. His mother agreed, but Jeffery didn't know that she would hang up the phone and contact my grandfather. I was with Jeffery when his mom confronted him about his lies. She said, "Jeffery, that gap between your two front teeth is a lie gap. All that comes out of that gap is lies!" I was reminded of Jeffery as I spoke with Gary today. Gary had a lot of stories. He told me that he had burglarized at least ten homes, has done fifteen years in the penitentiary, has a fourth grade education, does drugs with police officers, has read the Bible cover to cover hundreds of times, and has witnessed countless murders. He was at the courthouse today for shoplifting but insists that he is innocent. He was missing one of his front teeth which, to me, looked like a lie gap. I walked Gary through the Ten Commandments to which he admitted that he had broken God's laws, but he insisted that he was not that bad of a person. I told Gary that it was not a question about how bad you are, but it is about the goodness of God. God is so good that He cannot overlook even one sin. Gary quickly changed the subject toward his court case. I interrupted him and said, "Gary, what did I just say?" He lowered his head and chuckled as if he was embarrassed. He replied, "You got me, I wasn't listening." I then said, "Repeat after me, it is not about how bad I am, but about how good God is." Finally, some truth had made it out of that gap!