Lies, Lies, and More Lies

“Reach down your hand from on high; deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hands of foreigners whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful.” Psalm 144:7-8

Last Saturday night, my husband and I went to a murder mystery dinner at the church. It was a fund raiser for the youth group. The theme was the old west and I was the rich snooty woman married to the rich investor. We were supposed to be from Chicago and I was less than impressed with things in the Wild West. Our daughter, who turned out to be Flo, was enamored with the west and hung out in the saloon with all the hooligan men.


There was the initial task at hand – to find out who the murderer was – and the secondary task of trying to raise the most money through lying, scheming, bribery, and blackmail, all to maintain your innocence.


Here are some of the lies I told:


“I’m starting the Poor Children’s Home for the Poor Children of the West. Would you like to make a charitable donation?”


“It’s for the children!!”


“You’d better stay away from our daughter or you’ll be next.”


“My husband is worth a lot of money.”


“The saloon owner must be the murderer since he wants to keep the saloon out of foreclosure.”


“I don’t think my husband would ever murder anyone.”


“Denial is one of the seven stages of debt.”


“I have some information that I could possibly share with you for a charitable contribution to the Poor Children’s Home for the Poor Children of the West.”


I really liked this quote in the materials for my character.

Isn’t that a lot like real life?


Don’t we only tell a certain portion of our story, depending on who we’re talking to, and depending on what we want to get out of it?


It was also funny to me that during the evening, you knew what you knew, but didn’t know that some of what you knew wasn’t common knowledge to the others. They seemed surprise when I disclosed something that I thought perhaps everyone should have known.


Another real life example, I think.


So who was the killer? I’m sworn to public secrecy, but I will tell you that my husband wasn’t worth as much money as everyone thought he was.


Turns out his wife was the money hustler…


It was for the children!!


"But the king will rejoice in God; all who swear by God's name will praise him, while the mouths of liars will be silenced."  Psalm 63:11