Building on a lie

Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long (Psalm 25:4-5).

Two young stone masons were building a brick wall—the front side of a house. As one of them was placing a brick, it was immediately obvious to both of them that it was lopsided—a bit thicker on one side than the other. The first mason shrugged his shoulders and started laying the irregular brick into the fresh mortar.

The second mason objected. "It will make the wall uneven," he cautioned. "Pfah!" the first replied, "What difference will such a little thing make? You’re too particular."

The other mason replied, " My mother taught me that truth is truth, that even the smallest untruth is a lie, and a lie is always a big deal."

The first mason said, "That’s all fine and well, but I’m not lying and have no intention of doing so."

The other man said, "True enough, but you are making your wall tell a lie, and I’ve heard that a lie in a man’s work is like a lie in his character—sooner or later it will show itself and result in harm or maybe even ruin."

"I’ll risk it in this case," the first mason said, and he continued building the wall, row upon row, until the sun dipped towards the horizon and both men went home for the day.

The next morning, the two workers arrived at the construction site and saw the lie proclaimed. The wall, getting just a bit of a slant from the untrue brick, had grown more and more uneven the higher it got. During the night, it collapsed—thankfully, no one was there to get hurt.

So it is with all the lies and half-truths of your life—they might seem small or insignificant, but if you try to build your future on them, things will come crashing down on you. This is why Jesus urges you to cling to the truth and reject every temptation to compromise it.