“The words of their mouths are evil and dishonest. They have stopped being wise and stopped doing good” (Psalm 36:3, CEB).
I like wool. A fuzzy, Marino wool sweater. A pair of warm, wool socks. However, I don’t appreciate having the wool pulled over my eyes.
The English upper class was fond of wearing woolen wigs during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Sadly, thieves would pull the hairpieces down and over the eyes of these unsuspecting victims and steal their valuables. This deceitful practice became known as pulling the wool over one’s eyes.
Though the idiom has gone out of vogue in modern times, the act of deception has not. The purpose of deception involves presenting information to others that is not true. Most people are generally honest. (Children under the age of two never lie.) Studies have reported that the average person lies several times a day.
Some lies are big, like “I have never cheated on you.” More often we tell little white lies, such as, “I like your new tie.” Not.
Most people lie for one of three reasons. They either want something they don’t have. They want to protect themselves from harm or embarrassment. Or they wish to enhance their status or promote their position in the eyes of others.
However, trust is the foundation of all human relationships. Trust is necessary for marriages to survive. Trust in one’s parents is critical for children to thrive. And trust is essential for societies to stay alive.
In 1808, the Scottish novelist, Sir Walter Scott wrote, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!” Sadly, Scott’s words are proving true. The lies we are telling today words have our world ensnared in skepticism and suspicion of one another. Even worse, the lies we fail to vet and refute as untrue are twisting our perception of reality.
The solution to our mass confusion begins with each one of us. The pathway toward being more honorable in our dealings with one another is to be brutally honest with ourselves, as well as being wholly open to the discernment of God’s Spirit. The 1895 words of Clara Scott’s hymn offers a prayerful way forward to remove the wool from our eyes and guide us well toward living more
fully in the light of truth:
Open my ears that I may hear voices of truth thou sendest clear,
and while the wave notes fall on my ear, ev’rything false will disappear.
Silently now I wait for thee, ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my ears, illumine me, Spirit divine!
Open my mouth and let me bear gladly the warm truth ev’rywhere.
Open my heart and let me prepare love with thy children thus to share.
Silently now I wait for thee, ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my mouth, illumine me, Spirit divine!