Apples of Gold
Radio Script for September 25, 2008
“Astonishing Layers of Lies”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
Hemingway had a great foil for writer’s block.
He said, “Sometimes, I would start a new story and could not get it going. Then I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think. I would say to myself, ‘All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know.’”
I love that line, and I think of it often. “Write the truest sentence you know.”
I think that applies to our conversations as well. “Say the truest sentence you know.”
And I think that applies to our thinking. “Think the truest thoughts you can think.”
Philippians 4:8 tells us what to think about, and first on the list is “whatever is true.”
It sounds easy enough, but the truth is often not obvious.
Like when I was a kid and my parents made me brush my teeth. It’s true that you should care for your teeth or there will be consequences. But I couldn’t see that truth…until I had my first cavity. Then, oh baby, the truth is real obvious when you’ve got a dentist coming at you with a needle in one hand and a drill in the other.
After that you brush your teeth like a madman; for about a week. Then the truth starts to cloud over again.
Jesus said a powerful thing in the Sermon on the Mount when He said, “Get the plank out of your eye.”
In other words, think true thoughts about yourself.
Sometimes, when I have to deal with something difficult, I will ask myself, “What is the big picture truth of this situation?”
I say “big picture truth” because sometimes there are little truths that can lead you astray. Like when my girls were little. One of them accused the other by saying “She pinched me as hard as she could,” which the other was denying.
Now listen. Both of them were not saying the truest thing they could. Both of them were slanting things in their favor, so it was my job to find the actual truth of the situation, and here it was. To the accusation of “she pinched me as hard as she could” my other daughter finally said, “Huh uh, I only pinched her regular.”
Sometimes I use this phrase, “drilling down to the bedrock truth.” In other words, you drill past all the layers of half-truths and flat-out lies until you get to the rock-solid truth.
Here’s a great quote I read this week, from a book called “Signature Sins” by Michael Mangis. Listen to this: “One measure of a family’s health is its capacity for members to tell each other the truth. This sounds obvious, yet many families live under astonishing layers of lies.”
That should make you sit up and pay attention. Is your family one of those that is living under an astonishing layer of lies?
I have run into many people over the years who were liars. After a while they are easy to detect. And I’ve always wondered why they don’t see it in themselves.
I remember interviewing a young man for a job, and he sounded like a great applicant. We hired him, and he did good work, but then little things started popping up. Certain things he said just didn’t ring true. Eventually he quit and moved away, and I found out that a lot of what he had said about his life wasn’t true. Then he moved back, and I foolishly entered into a little business arrangement with him, but then guess what. It didn’t pan out like he said. Then another time I ran into this guy at an open meeting where he stood up and pledged to give a certain amount of money. Everyone cheered except me because I knew there was no way. He wouldn’t and couldn’t come through with that kind of money. And of course he didn’t deliver a dime.
Now take a guy like that. Give him a wife and children, and you think that home will be a home of truth? No way. It will be like Mangis said, a family living under astonishing layers of lies.
I have said this a thousand times, “You never know what is going on in someone’s home.” But here is something that should be going on in all of our homes. We need to be dealing in truth.
And it starts within ourselves. Are we telling ourselves the truth?
The good news is that we don’t have to try to muster this up on our own. Jesus said in John 16:13 that the Holy Spirit will guide us “into all truth.”
Yes, the truth can be elusive. It can be lost under layers of lies and dustings of deception. But as we draw near to God, the rushing wind of the Holy Spirit will blow that dust away and show us the truth. And as Jesus said, the truth will make us free.
So make it a point to think true thoughts, the truest thoughts you can think. And make true statements, the truest statements you can make. And when you write, make sure you are writing the truest sentence you know.
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
© 2008 The Arrow’s Tip
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(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
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