Day 30 of reading a chapter from the Proverbs a day. Reflecting upon how often liars are despised.
Perhaps you were kids on the playground. Perhaps it was later in young adulthood. Someone gets angry and wants to fight. All the people around encourage him. They are not going to fight. But the angry one grows ever more belligerent and ready to go into the fight.
Liars on social media are in search of “likes”. Each like is a hit of dopamine for the mind. Like the encouragers in the mob encouraging the one to fight, the “likers” obtain some joy watching someone else play the fool. The “liked” person feels vindicated and backed up ready to go further.
We may think this is a new phenomenon—all this lying on social media. But literature from 3,000 years ago containing sayings most likely passed down from many generations before show us that lying is not new. It is as old as humans in community.
Yet, we also have the examples of the wise, the truthful. They existed at the same time.
Community, society, exist in tension between the wise and the fool, the truth teller and the liar.
Our choice, my choice, your choice is to become aware and then choose—within which side of the tension shall we reside?
Faith Venture 
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