Leadership Thought: The Day I Lied and Got Caught and the Lesson Learned.

Dear Friends,

It has been said that ‘Things come apart so easily apart when they've been held together by lies or deceit.”

I learned that lesson early on in my ministry. I was teaching and coaching at a military prep school in Syracuse, N.Y. that was struggling financially. We were about to be taken over by another school and each member of our faculty was being individually evaluated by several members from that rival school’s staff. Our individual fates would be decided by a 45-minute classroom evaluation by unknown teachers, and as you can imagine our faculty members, some who had been teaching there for over 40 years, were none too happy. Morale at our school was at an all-time low as one by one, our teachers learned their fate.

Each member of our faculty would individually meet with Dr. Barder, the soon to be new headmaster of the merged schools to learn whether they would be dismissed or retained for the next school year. Many of my friends had already lost their positions and my personal interview was only days ahead. Although I had no idea as to what my outcome would be, I was determined to take things into my own hands by deceitfully seeking to manipulate the process.

I wrote a personal letter of resignation, and my plans were to place that letter in the headmaster’s mailbox before I entered his office. If during the interview, I learned I was about to be dismissed, I would simply refer to my letter of resignation that I had placed in his box and walk away with the satisfaction that I had resigned before I could be fired. However, if I learned I would be retained, my intentions were to grab my letter from his box on my way out of his office and no one would ever know it had ever been written.

Unfortunately, my plan of deception backfired, for in the midst of my meeting, the headmaster’s secretary walked into the office and placed my letter of resignation in front of Dr. Barder. He took one look at it, and I'll never forget his words: “Mr. Crenshaw, it looks like you have already decided you no longer wish to be a part of our new faculty. Good luck. I wish you well. Have a great day.” And that was the end of the brief interview

I was stunned. There have only been a few times in my life when I have been left speechless, but this was one of them. I had been caught red handed. My devious efforts to manipulate the process had backfired and done me in.  I walked out of the headmaster’s office embarrassed and wondering how I could have ever done something so stupid, and yes, 

so sinful.

Although I never discovered whether I was to be dismissed or retained as a member of the new school faculty, I did learn a valuable lesson. I learned that as believers we “must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbors’ (Ephesians 4:25).

A lie is a statement of fact that is contrary to the fact and designed to deceive. All deceit is lying, and all lying is sin, and God hates sin.

Whenever we speak the truth, the Spirit of God is a work, but whenever we tell a lie or seek to deceive, Satan goes to work. 

Lying is a dangerous sin. The first sin of judgment in the early church was the sin of lying when Ananias and Sapphira lied to the church about their financial transactions, and those lies cost them their lives. (Acts 5).

So let us put away all lying and deception, always remembering that falsehood stifles unity; truth strengthens it.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom

P.S. “Lies are like scars to the soul. They destroy you.”