Do you – on a regular basis – two or three times a week, tear a sheet of paper in half with the intention of only using one of the halves? I did for two years of my life…but very seldom after that.
My two years of “half sheets” came during 7th and 8th grade history class with Miss Small. As we students entered her classroom, she would be standing by the door as we walked into the room – right in front of her. After the final bell would ring she would wait about 10 seconds more for any latecomers and firmly shut the door…As she walked to her desk, she would LOUDLY say “Sit down, shut up and take out a half a sheet of paper”. This always meant she was going to give us a quick little quiz on yesterday’s homework assignment. Then as she started talking about today’s subject, she walked around and picked up the half sheets of paper – which of course had our names on them too. If you had paid attention in class the day before, her little quiz was pretty easy…she always asked questions about things she had talked about AND WRITTEN on the board the day before. She gave her little quizzes 2 or 3 times a week – different days, just to keep us guessing!
Thinking about all those “half sheets of paper”, got me thinking about lots of other ways we use “a half”. This time of year we hear: “half the distance to the goal” …there are many “half measurements” like half a mile, half a gallon, half a cup, half a tablespoon, teaspoon etc. And even though we don’t see them very often anymore, let’s not forget a half dollar – the 50 cent piece!
But then there’s probably one that God pays attention to more than all the other “halves” combined…that would be a “Half-Truth”. In Acts 5: 1-11 we find where Ananias and his wife Sapphira sell a piece of property and say they are going to give the money they receive to the church. The problem was, they had a secret plan to keep some of the money for themselves and ‘say’ that the balance was the full amount they got for the property. When they were separately confronted about what they had done, they both died on the spot…Sometimes God’s justice is swift.
We can find another “Half-Truth” all the way back in Genesis 20…Abraham, who we often think of as a man of faith, told a “half-truth” – and his wife Sarah went along with it. Abraham was afraid of being killed and/or losing his wife Sarah, so he said: “She’s my sister” (verse 2), The “half-truth” was that she indeed was Abraham’s half sister – they had different mothers (verse 12).
I’ll wrap this up with a verse from James 5:12 (PEV) “And there is another thing that I want to say, my friends, and it is very important. Whenever you promise something, don’t say, “God is the boss over heaven and earth, and if I don’t do what I promise, he will punish me.” Don’t say anything like that. You see, if you say that, and then don’t do what you promised, then God will say that you are guilty. So just tell the true story. Say yes when that is true, or no when that is true, and don’t say anything more.
Till Next Time…..
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