What is truth? What counts as a lie? In a landscape of “factcheckers” and “spin,” what is honesty? I contend the more important question about the integrity of our words is this: “Who’s your daddy?”
Note about the image: Created using Microsoft Copilot.
My Mysterious Mind
I’ve been troubled in recent weeks by some emails I received that contain misrepresentations of the truth. We used to call such statements “lies.” Sent by people I previously had no reason to mistrust, my confidence is now shattered, like the glass door that broke this morning during my husband’s shower. Trust lies as irreparably broken as the thousands of sharp fragments on the bathroom floor…and all over my husband’s body. This is an image of the mess one little lie can cause.
Somewhere along the way it became acceptable to make statements that are not true or word facts in such a way their truth is intentionally obscured. I am not talking about withholding truth, that is acceptable due to confidentiality or privacy concerns. The wording of these emails was such that the truth was obscured by wording that was not true. Can I just call these statements what they are…lies?
The authors probably had “good reasons” to say what isn’t true. Those reasons probably fall in the “ends justify the means” category, which also used to be considered unethical by most people. For me the trouble lies much deeper than the gray terrain between ethical and unethical. My concern is to whose authority such lies serve.
I was taught to tell the truth. “Honesty is the best policy” was engraved into my psyche. A few weeks after filing my 2025 taxes I had a sickening realization: I had left out a W2 in the materials I gave to our accountant. The amount was small, $1785, but the tax implications were significant as the amount was largely untaxed. I sent the missing W2 to our accountant and asked about an amended return. We met via Zoom to discuss the situation.
He presented the option of just doing nothing. Perhaps the IRS would never notice the error. After all, I would need to pay for an additional tax preparation fee and the unpaid taxes. In all likelihood the IRS would never be the wiser if I just ignore my mistake.
I considered the dishonest option for about a second or two. No, I quickly concluded. To not file amended tax returns would be dishonest, like actually telling a lie on my original returns. The path of truth, no matter the monetary cost, was the only way forward for me.
The honest route cost me $601 in fees and unpaid taxes. What it bought me was a restored conscience and peace of mind.
The action also provided evidence of the authority I chose to serve. I could have served “the Almighty dollar” and saved six hundred dollars. I chose to serve a higher authority, and I don’t mean the IRS or US Government. When pondering truth versus a lie, ask me the important question: “Who’s your daddy?”
Message of Mystery Acres
I love the honesty of the forest, even when the truth is difficult. Extreme temperatures, death of trees, or powerful winds — all that happens in the woods is true. Nature doesn’t deceive me.
The forest isn’t playing some deceptive game with me, creating a fiction that serves a selfish purpose. What you see is what you get. What you feel is what is real. What you hear is what is alive or actually happening.
“Truth or lie?” isn’t a valid question at Mystery Acres. The only authority being served is the laws of nature, set in motion by the Creator.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons I find such peace in the forest. No propaganda. No secret agendas. No manufactured stories. Just truth. Raw, sometimes brutal, truth.
The message of Mystery Acres is a call to purity without any misrepresentations. The forest demonstrates an honest way of being, a model for living in truth alone. If I ask nature, “Who’s your daddy?” the answer will be, “the Father who created me.”
Ancient Mystery’s Voice
“Jesus said, ‘Your father, the devil...is a liar and the father of lies.’” (see John 8:44)
According to the book of John, written by one of Jesus’s most beloved followers, the modern, gentle talking, version of Jesus is not completely accurate. Some of the strongest words ever captured, by any human, are those John recorded in what is the 8th chapter of his book. In a verbal showdown with the ancient leaders of the Jewish religion, Jesus asserted the patriarchal authority of those who opposed him was the devil.
Jesus didn’t sugarcoat reality. Those who opposed Him were allied with the devil, whom Jesus referred to as their father. Furthermore, He declared the devil to be a liar, the very father of lies. If asked, “Who’s your daddy?” they would, if honest liars, have to confess their allegiance to the father of lies.
Therein lies the trap of lies. Liars cannot be honest with themselves about their rebellion against the truth. “I’m not lying!” asserts the liar. “I’m telling the truth!” declares the one who often is not. “Trust me!” begs the one who may be weaving tales of deception.
When it comes to liars, it’s impossible to believe anything they say, even when they are telling the truth. One lie mixed in with thousands of honest statements turns the whole batch to darkness. Each person only has one daddy, one ultimate authority over their lives.
In contrast, the writer of an ancient letter to the Hebrews built his faith on this assertion: “It is not possible for God to lie” (Hebrews 6:18). During His trial, Jesus said He came to “testify to the truth” (John 18:37). Jesus also referred to Himself as “the Truth” (John 14:6).
Was Jesus telling the truth? The evidence of His life, described for two thousand years by those who follow Him, reveals a complete lack of deception. Jesus has never been “caught in a lie.” His reputation, and that of God the Father, is one of solid, pure integrity. We might not always like their words, but all of them are true.
The words of Ancient Mystery’s voice, the words of Jesus, provide a caution. The choice between telling the truth or a lie matters, creating lines of patriarchal authority to God the Father or the father of lies, the devil. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what is true and what is not. When it’s clear a lie has been told, the authority over that lie is also clear.
Living in Mystery
What does it mean to live in the mystery of truth or a lie, asking the essential question: “Who’s your daddy?” In an era of pervasive gray, this mystery starts with acknowledging the critical line between what is true and what is not true. Even a small amount of fiction mixed in with what is otherwise true contaminates the purity of truth, turning it into a lie. One drop of food coloring taints the clarity of water. Just a single drop. There is no partial truth; what is not completely true is a lie.
Some lies are probably worse than others. Exaggerating, such as tales of fish caught, are usually harmless. The fish get bigger with every retelling of the story. Similarly, success stories are often told with more grand details than supported by reality. These could be categorically considered lies but are usually victimless crimes. The agenda is self-aggrandizement not deception. It’s the latter, the intentional telling of something not true for the purpose of deceiving the recipient for personal gain, that concerns me the most.
Sadly, in a modern world immersed in propaganda, searching for truth is fraught with misdirection. I don’t trust what I read. I check sources. I check the authors of those sources. I am suspicious of self-serving agendas. In the end, I remain doubtful about conclusions offered by others. I would rather gather my own evidence and reach my own decision about reality.
For individuals, I start from a position of trust, believing what is said as truth. One confirmed lie, however, and I never trust that person again. One drop of deception taints every future utterance for me. I believe what someone says until I know it includes a lie.
Liars lie. That’s the hard truth.
The harder truth is that I am a liar. It only takes one lie to taint the purity of total honesty. I can think of at least one lie I’ve told, like the time I told the highway patrolmen I didn’t know I had to have a license plate on the front of my purple convertible. He believed me, didn’t give me a ticket, and I went on my merry way…as a liar.
With each behavior, a person can only serve one master, one “daddy,” so to speak. A lie reveals a dangerous allegiance to the father of lies. Our words originate from a point of authority; we either serve truth or deception. When I tell a lie, or you tell a lie, we are serving a deceitful “daddy.”
Can such an allegiance change? Absolutely. Trusting that change, however, may take a very long time. And, during that time, trust can only be restored with a complete absence of lies. But, in the words of Ancient Mystery, recorded in Psalm 32, verse 2, “Blessed is the one … in whose spirit there is no deceit.”
Telling the truth can be expensive, such as the money I paid for amended tax returns. But living a lie is more costly. Relationships are built on trust, and trust is built on integrity, and integrity depends on honesty. The foundation of any reputation is behavior. Telling lies, even a little bit, destroys integrity and erodes reputation. Those recent emails have devastating implications for the reputations of the senders.
Allegiance to the father of truth requires daily, lifelong vigilance. Tempted to save a buck or avoid an uncomfortable truth, dishonest words might emerge from our mouths or through our written communication. Such lies signal an unholy allegiance, homage to the father of lies. Integrity is comprised, reputation cracks, and trust is lost from those around us. Telling the truth or uttering a lie reveals the answer to a critical question, “Who’s your daddy?”
Connecting with Mystery
Dear Lord of All Mystery, I confess to not always telling the truth. Tempted by an easier path, I sometimes choose to lie. Forgive me. Purify me. Strengthen me to remain loyal to God as my Father, the source of pure Truth. Thank You for helping me live in allegiance to You as my daddy. Amen.
Notes from Dr. Mac
If you want to do your own uncomfortable contemplation of the words of Jesus, ponder this verse from the book of John: “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” I pray this assessment from Jesus is not true for you or for me.
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