The Fairborn Paper

Afterward I said, “That’s not what happened,” and he said, “I know, but it was a better story.”
It’s wrong to exaggerate, but at least he knew he was doing it.  Some people do it so often I don’t think they even realize it.  

You expect wild exaggerations from guys at the bar, but a lot of Christians do it, too.  Preachers can even exaggerate in the pulpit, and if you ever want to test your pastor for exaggeration, just ask him how many people were in church last week.

People exaggerate to make themselves look better or to make others look worse.  They exaggerate to sell products or get dates or avoid trouble.  “I’m rushing to be at my ailing father’s side, officer,” when your father is only ailing because the Dodgers are on a losing streak.
Politicians can exaggerate to get elected or to advance their agendas.  Parents can exaggerate to keep their children in line.

Do you throw around words like “always” and “never”?  Those are favorites of the exaggerator.  
Exaggeration is a type of deception.  You might call it “stretching the truth” or “spin.”  Any time you “spin” something you are not dealing in rock solid truth.

I say “rock solid” because I see truth as bedrock.  When you want to build a bridge, you can’t just build on the riverbed because it shifts.  You have to dig down and build on bedrock.
And that’s where we need to build our lives, on the bedrock of truth.
Exaggeration is like that shifting riverbed.  It’s an unreliable foundation and we need to get past it.

Let me ask you this.  Are you a “drama queen”?  

A drama queen is really just an exaggerator, making things bigger than they are.

If you are prone to exaggerate, let me tell you, you are a drama queen.

Here’s an interesting twist.  I’ve had people introduce me and exaggerate my accomplishments.  I just shake my head and wonder, “Why are you doing that?”  

Why are they doing it?  So I will feel flattered?  So I will like them more because they flattered me?  So they will look better by knowing this inflated version of me?

When you really dial in on exaggeration, you hear it all the time.  And you will catch yourself doing it.  

Jesus said, “Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no,’ ‘no.’”

First Peter 2:1 tells us to rid ourselves of all deceit.

I read recently about Pat Robertson’s founding of the Christian Broadcasting Network.  When he was a young man he was urgently seeking the Lord, wanting more of God in His life.  

Have you ever been there, just chasing after God?  Have you felt the passion to have more of His Spirit, His presence in your life?  

That’s where Pat was, and he went on a three-day fast.  He set aside a long weekend to draw near to God, and here is what happened.

He said that God pressed upon on him that He is the Spirit of Truth.  Pat said, “He showed me that I was to despise all manner of lying and dishonesty.  Before I could come into His presence, I first had to have clean hands and a pure heart.  It was a magnificent revelation.  He was saying to me, ‘I hate lying.  I demand truth in your inward being.’”
Pat continued, “God had put His finger on a raw nerve.  My southern upbringing had taught me always to be gracious, even at the expense of the truth.  Later on, it grew increasingly easy to alter the truth to suit my convenience.  Now, after the three-day fast, I had become so sensitive to the truth that I couldn’t stand falsehood.  When anyone made a misstatement of fact in my presence, I felt as if a knife had been twisted in my stomach.  I believed that God had given me the key to the fullness of His power.”

So, are you hungry for more of God?  

Then you must address any deception in your life.  

We need to follow the pattern of Jesus of whom it was said “…no deceit was found in His mouth.”
And one of the sneakiest forms of deceit is this. Exaggeration.