What you see ain’t what you always get

Hardly a day goes by that someone is not arrested for some heinous crime and often all of that person’s friends, neighbors and even family seem astonished that the person is capable of doing such a horrible thing. Somehow they were capable of leading two different lives and it went undetected by others right up until the day of their arrest.


I watched a news documentary the night and a guy was married to two different women who lived in different cities. He managed to raise two separate families with children and each knew nothing about the other literally for years. He told them he was a spy working for the CIA and accounted for his mysterious and frequent absences in that manner.

These are fodder for sensational headlines, but I wonder how many ordinary people lead chameleon lives in which they espouse one notion and live another.

For some strange reason religion comes to my mind. Someone once said, “What we live is what we believe and all of the rest is just religious talk. Hmmm. I suppose there is some profound truth in that statement. Some of the harshest criticism that Jesus ever uttered was reserved for hypocrites. Those who pretended to be “goody-two shoes” on Sunday’s and lived for the devil the rest of the week.

We might get away with leading a double life for a while, but to be sure there will be a “Day of Reckoning”. I suppose we should take a look at ourselves this morning and ask, “Do I live what I believe”? (Do I witness to others? Do I faithfully tithe? Do I love my neighbor? Do I forgive as I have been forgiven? Is God my foremost priority or is my career, money, golf more important to me?)

Psalm 19:9
The judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether