Spiritual Clarity

How do you maintain integrity even when you cannot be fully honest with people who do not hold your values?

Judith 9:12-13

I beg you, God of my ancestor, God of Israel’s inheritance, ruler of heaven and earth, creator of the waters, king of all your creation, hear my prayer! Make my lying words a wound and a bruise to those who have planned cruel things against your covenant, your sacred temple, Mount Zion, and the house your children possess.

In resisting evil, many fear becoming like the very forces they oppose. Judith understood this tension. Faced with the destruction of her people, she didn’t abandon her faith—she brought her full humanity to God, including her strategy of being intentionally deceptive.

In deep lamentation, she asked for help from God– almost as one would of an accountability partner–to succeed for her people’s sake. Judith was “truthful about lying,” not because deception was her norm, but because survival sometimes demands complexity.

Her story asks us: How do we pursue justice without becoming unjust? For Judith, the answer was spiritual clarity—knowing that deception was a tactic, not a lifestyle. It wasn’t about the ends justifying the means. It was about living to see another day, and trusting God to help her do so with integrity intact.

When faced with extreme situational complexity, how do you stay in integrity even when you cannot be fully honest with people who do not hold your values?

— Pedro Silva