With age comes wisdom, usually. This is why I love fellowshipping with the aged in my life, in my family, church and neighborhood. I have learned so much about motherhood and men, gardening and grooming, cooking and cleaning and how to seek hard after Christ. But recently when spending time with one of my aged loves, I saw how God’s wisdom can evade when worldly wisdom creeps in its place.

“When people are going through and want you to tell a lie sometimes you have to support them.” I wanted to respond to the woman who has taught me much about intelligence and integrity and who would call women out when they lied to her. I had to just listen, to search for some sort of sense in this.

She went on to tell me that her friend who has suffered several health challenges had to leave her place because she couldn’t pay the rent. Now trying to get a new lease, the woman asked my aged love to pose as her sister and say that the woman lived with her, that she has been paying her rent on time and my friend could vouch for her credit. As the story and my silence went on, the strength of my love’s voice weakened. I then asked, “Can’t you be charged with fraud if found out? Are you willing to experience that?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know.”

“Oh, okay.”

We both knew things weren’t okay, that telling a lie was larger than we wanted it to be.

Even among the sage, with friends in desperate need, we can easily rely on our own devices, not thinking about where the lies may take us or where they come from:

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.

Sometimes we may suspect that the wisdom of our lies is worldly (earthly) or from old wives’ tales (unspiritual), but I don’t think most of us consciously think our thoughts are demonic. I know my aged love didn’t and wanted me to approve of her selflessness to help a soul in need. I know if I think about well-intentioned lies—those white ones, those little ones, those fibbed and information-omitted ones—as demonic I’ll be less inclined to consider them, and, with hope, you will, too.

Copyright 2011 by Rhonda J. Smith