I asked this question on Facebook:
So many people had great guesses. Including: praying, sneezing, & yawning. It was agreed that 1.65 is too high a number for the times people read the bible a day, and far too low for how many times people check Facebook a day (which itself is a telling fact.)
Alert reader Doug Poore of Pickens, South Carolina was the first to guess correctly, and will be sent a free book for his speedy correct guess.
THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION: “Most of us lie, it turns out, with astounding regularity. According to a 2011 survey, people in the United States do so, on average, 1.65 times a day” (From the September 2013 Atlantic Monthly I was reading over breakfast, i’ll find and link it on the web here as I was reading the old-fashioned printed kind). I was thinking of writing on the subject of “sin” someday and this one caught my eye. Most of the article went on to say that the lies were “very minor” usually but that social media is “catching us in our little lies” these days.
Let me give an example on this subject of manipulation and lying. When I posted the very question above on Facebook, if I had not clicked “X” on the “location” part of my post above it would have given the location: “Gas City, Indiana” — which is where I live. Now, that’s not a lie–but what motivated me to click the “X” hiding my location? Did I have something to hide in that post?
- Was it because I was eating breakfast later than my usual start–and didn’t want people to know I was still at home rather than “up and at em” at my office already–protecting my reputation as an early riser?
- Was it because I didn’t want to remind my co-workers that I am not in the office at all today–but instead at Jackson Library in message prep? And did I just now point out that I’m at a library in order to make it sound like I’m all studious, when in fact I was delaying my message prep by writing this very blog?
- Was it because I only want to tag my location when I’m in a more impressive city like Chicago, Washington, Atlanta, or NYC? Why am I prone to “write in” my location when it makes me look good, and “click X” when it looks boring?
- Or was it because I simply hate Facebook always reminding me that I live in a town with the ridiculous name of “Gas City”?
I don’t know. All I know is that the greatest LIE = SIN is in me.
May I be made new in Christ!
“Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” Rom6v18
