“We need to drink a lot…”

She shakes her head…

And sits down at the restaurant table.

“Another round for us…”

Says one of the two guys already at the table…

“I’ll have what they’re having.”

The beer arrives.

They talk in quiet tones…

An occasional word rising above the restaurant noise…

“Fired…”

“After so many years…

“No new accounts in a long time…”

“Who’s next?”

Dour faces…

Eyes cast downward…

A fourth person approaches the table…

No one sees him until he stands directly behind the woman.

“I’m Buying!” he says in a voice loud enough to announce his presence to the restaurant…

The woman turns and gasps…

“Wow!” says one of the men.

“I mean…I can’t believe you’re here.”

“I mean…thanks for coming.”

Both men sit up straight

Everyone at the table smiles.

The boss has arrived.

Conversation turns to how wonderful it is to work for such a fantastic company.

Truth seems to have fled…

As everybody tries to impress everybody else.

As everybody plays the role expected of them…

The oft-rehearsed words of the melodrama echoing across the restaurant…

I smile…

A smile of recognition…

I see myself in their words and actions.

I have said the same words…

Smiled the same smiles…

Told the same lies…

To bosses…To coworkers…To God.

I’ve prayed prayers that were a little less than truthful about my sins…

Forgetting God knows the truth whether I speak it or not…

You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.  …you perceive my thoughts from afar.   Psalm 139:1-2

I do what I shouldn’t when I think God isn’t around…

Forgetting He is with me everywhere…

‘Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.  Psalm 139:7-8

I play the role I think God expects of me…

Forgetting what God requires …

…And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.  Micah 6:8