I hate duplicity

For a long time, I worked in the nice, cozy surroundings of the Christian media. I was an early morning DJ for 13 years and ran a Chrisitian bookstore for a year and a half. In that time, I was blessed to not have to deal so much with duplicity. The people I worked with were good for their word and normally didn't say one thing and then do another. Getting out into the real world and working with and for those who don't know Christ was a real eye opener, exposing me to the depth of the depravity of a person's heart.

I've struggled with this issue of duplicity for some time now...saying one thing and living a different life, in opposition to what your mouth proclaims. We're all capable of doing this, me being chief. But the last couple years at the Post Office has shown me how that can work to one's financial advantage but to the disadvantage of the many who live with the ramifications of those decisions and broken promises. My life has been made very inconvenient by the continuing duplicity of management at work. I've seen couples do it as well, saying they care about family and community, then turn around and rip down God's pillar of society by divoricing their spouse and breaking up the family. My life has been left in turmoil by duplicity in that area, too. Politicians have their black belts in duplicity, promising the moon before the election, but doing something completely different when in office. Even TV preachers, some do God a great service, but some talk about God, but it's really all about the cash you can send them. And the jury is still out on Paris Hilton, who claims she has changed for the better and will invest her life in others now that she's out of prison.....we'll see.

What does God think of all this? For those of us who know Him, the standard is high. He says that we should let our yes be yes and our no be no, so that we don't fall under judgment (Jas 5:12), that we should not even promise, if we're going to promise and not live up to it (Ecc 5:5). There were several times when God was not happy with His people because they made empty promises to Him that they didn't live up to. The lovely job of telling the people of God's displeasure fell onto the prophet of the time. Ananias and Sapphira tried to fit in with the others in selling their property, but inside, they hid the truth of what really happened and lied to the people and to the Holy Spirit. Their punishment was harsh and quick.

This all makes me look inside and check my own life. I try, but I fail. God reminds me of people I've told that I would pray for and have totally forgotten about. Sometimes, I look back on the past that He has wiped out and how I used to act then...and if I'm not careful, can act that way again. I try not to make promises I can't keep and aim to live a honest and transparent life. The world doesn't know what to do with that, but that's ok. Even Christians don't know what to do with that. That's a sad thought.

In the movie "A Mighty Wind," Mitch Cohen (Eugene Levy) is a folk singer 30 years removed from the fame he once knew. He also is a psychological mess, unstable in his person. In the scene where he is asked to do a reunion concert with his former partner/wife, Mickey, he explains to the concert organizer, "There's a deception here. The audience...is expecting to see a man who no longer exists." Even being in the condition he was in, even he recognized that it wasn't right to try to be someone that he isn't ...or simpler yet, to live a lie--to make it look like he's just fine but knowing that he's really not. He couldn't do duplicity. May God give us the power to live a Christ honoring life, free of wavering and duplicity, for His glory and the good of His church.