Liar

words & music by Doug Howell (30 Oct 1978)

yesterday at the fair you really took me for a ride
you said if I’d surrender you’d keep me satisfied
but after just one time around it all came down the same
leaving me to hate myself for playing in your game

liar, liar
you really took me for a ride
liar, liar
you’d better run and

you’ve been saying so long you’ve got exactly what I need
you sold me to a dream marked “satisfaction guaranteed”
I wanted so to believe you, you know I blinded my own eyes
but now I recognize you beneath your foul disguise

liar, liar
you really took me for a ride
liar, liar
you’d better run and hide

you’ve made a career of tantalizing
making sin so appetizing
and treachery so pleasant to the eye
but it’s all a deadly lie

I know it’s all in your plan to rob me of my youth
but Jesus lives inside me now and he’s the way the life and the truth
you can cash in on my weakness
go on and dare me if you can
but when I’m weak in him I’m strong
you better find another plan

liar, liar
you really took me for a ride
liar, liar
you’d better run and

Jesus has already beat you
in the end we will defeat you
you’re just a liar
liar

℗ © 1986 Dweller by the Light Stream Music, assigned to Creative Measures (ASCAP)

2011 Notes

On an album about Truth, there must be a song about lying. In my notes on “Here I Am,” I talked about being accused of lying, and not understanding how the accusation was meant. Several songs on this album revolve around telling the truth about who I am. This one is my response to lying about who I am. Some have said that almost all of Satan’s assaults and accusations come from an effort to convince us we are not who God says we are. Which voice do we listen to, when both are swirling around in our heads?

If the enemy can persuade me that I’m a spiritual imposter, and focus my attention on my own unworthiness, he’s won the battle. But if I rest in who God says I am, based on Jesus’ work and goodness rather than my own, then I’m secure, I’m strong, I’m loved. Nothing can prevail against me, no insinuation, no suspicion. I’m not defined by my failures, but by His forgiveness. (And if you want a lot more eye-opening insights into the tactics of the devil, read The Screwtape Letters, by C. S. Lewis.)

Through all my struggles with “the big H,” as I used to call it in my diary (Tchaikovsky used to call it “X” in his), I’ve struggled in the no-man’s-land between those two views of myself. And if Paul’s writings are any indication, it is a struggle that will continue as long as I am on this side of the grave. When we die to ourselves, that’s when we live—and all the other seeming contradictions and ironies that go along with that one.

One important word of clarification, though. All of this assumes that you will remain a pilgrim for truth. No, truth is not that neatly tied bundle of scripture verses and traditions and cultural norms you swung over your back and left childhood with. Truth is much bigger than that. And with each step you take, it gets bigger. You will not just suddenly arrive there someday. This is a learn-as-you-go proposition. Around every corner is a new vista, a new lesson, a new challenge, a new risk. Doesn’t look the same to the people behind you, nor to the people ahead. You’re just like the pilgrims of The Pilgrim’s Progress or Hinds’ Feet on High Places. You must keep on traveling through the multidimensional mountain range of truth, keep your eyes open, keep your ears open, keep your heart trained on your Shepherd, and your hand in His.