Daily Lesson for October 30, 2014

Today's daily lesson comes from Luke 12 verses 1 through 3:

He began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.”

Politicians these days are always being caught talking when they think nobody else is listening. They whisper something smart-Alec or ugly, not knowing there's a "hot mic" picking up their every word.

Probably the worst in recent years was when French President Jacques Chirac was pushing Paris over its main rival London as the site for the 2014 Summer Olympics. He turned to cuisine as one thing that set Paris apart from London.  And not knowing a microphone was on, Chirac offered this case in point about British food:

"The only thing that [the British] have ever done for European agriculture is mad cow disease," he told Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. "You cannot trust people who have such bad cuisine."

Well, as we all now know, London won the Olympic bid and nobody ended up going mad.

Jesus said whatever we say in hushed whispers will be shouted from rooftops. And I guarantee it won't be as cute, witty, or funny to the neighbors as it is to us. In fact, it will pretty much make us look like hypocrites. There is nothing worse than being shown to be hypocritical.

Hot mics are everywhere -- certainly the hot mics of heaven are anyway. And as Jesus said elsewhere, there will be "a day of judgement for every careless word uttered."

A good way to avoid humiliation at judgment is to remember what our mothers told us, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."

That's even more important today for us today than when we first heard it.