TNL recently held an artists’ series based on the ten commandments and i was blessed to be one of the ten artists to participate. I chose the ninth commandment which is “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” I was asked to write a small statement to put in the weekly “essentials” handout and this is what i wrote:

“I strongly believe that all deception leads to death. Any deception, whether from ourselves or those around us can only serve to destroy us eventually. Conversely, when we keep our lives transparent we are forced to handle the issues that plague us, and we can better accept and appreciate grace.

my piece is a story of man who has caused the great collapse of everything that he’s ever called important. He is in complete control of the slow, sinking deaths of everyone around him, but cannot, for some reason allow truth to exit his mouth. Finally recognizing his enormous defeat, he cries out to heaven for some kind of salvation from the hell he has built himself.”