Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment (Proverbs 12:19).

The struggle between truth and lies is a significant theme of Proverbs chapter 12 (see verses 2, 5, 6, 9, 13, 14, 17, 19, and 22) -- almost like some kind of clash of gladiators in the Roman Colosseum... Or like the Minnesota Metrodome.

An effective illustration of Proverbs 12:19 can be seen in the case of the 2010 Minnesota Vikings (one of my favorite teams in the National Football League).  Following a year in which they were just one pass away from a berth in the Superbowl, the season started with great promise and potential.  They had a lot of talent and experience.  They had a lot of confidence.  And it seemed they had the truth on their side.  Brad Childress, the head coach, had once boasted that telling the truth "is the only way I know how to do it. I think people in the long run appreciate that. Just deal in the currency of truth. If I tell you a lie, the next time I can't remember what I told you the last time. If I tell you the truth, it's a lot easier to just keep telling the truth, over and over. Coaching these guys is no different than coaching anybody. As long as you're honest and direct, the guy knows where you stand, they appreciate it."  It all sounded like the makings of a beautiful season for Vikings fans.  But over the subsequent weeks and months of the football season, everything unraveled in a way that made it obvious that "truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment."

Just before the start of the season, Brett Favre, the team's veteran quarterback (one of the most greatest quarterbacks ever to play in the NFL, a certain Hall-of-Famer) communicated that he had decided to retire, launching a fury of speculation about how the team would replace him.  A day later, then he said that he wasn't going to retire.  For a week, reports flew back and forth.  During this time, Childress told two of his assistant coaches to publicly misrepresent the whereabouts of three of the team's captains who missed practices with the rest of the team while, it was later revealed, they flew down to Mississippi to convince the waffling quarterback to return to the team for another run at the championship.  Eventually Favre did decide to rejoin the Vikings, though tensions gradually built up between Favre, Childress, and the other players -- presumably due in part to the way that the retirement / non-retirement (basically an exercise in power dynamics) situation worked itself out.  Everyone on the team publicly communicated that they were all on the same page and happy to be working together towards the championship.  But behind the scenes, it later came out, they distrusted and despised each other.  All that rhetoric about truth seemed to start fraying even before the season was even started.

A couple of weeks into the season, allegations surfaced that Favre had once sent a number of inappopriate, sexually-charged text messages to a female worker with one of his former teams -- and for several weeks, the allegations (yet unconfirmed) plagued the quarterback and his team.  All the while, all Vikings' personnel said that it was a non-issue.  It wasn't a distraction at all.  In the meantime, however, they kept losing football games to teams that they would have normally expected to beat.  Favre's performance suffered, in particular.  But all the while, he maintained his position that the controversy about the alleged sexting did not affect him.  In the process, the truth was becoming more and more obscured.

During this downturn in the season, the Vikings decided to pick up an extra All-Pro wide receiver:  the notorious Randy Moss.  He had once played for the Vikings, actually, and there was no doubt that he was an extremely talented athlete.  However, he was widely known for his attitude problems and poor work ethic -- often playing at half-speed, considering his own self-interests above that of his team, ranting and raving if he didn't get the ball enough... that sort of thing.  However, they said that they felt confident that Moss wouldn't be a problem with the team this time around.  But sure enough, after just a couple of weeks (and a couple more losses), Moss was back to his old tricks and the tension in the locker room was apparent to even the most casual observers -- even though all public statements maintained that everything was fine.  After a particularly frustrating loss to the New England Patriots, Moss made some particularly inflamatory statements to the media, and speculation began immediately about how Childress would handle the latest outburst in his team's disappointing season.  The day after the media outburst, Childress told the media that he had given Moss permission to skip the Vikings' flight back to Minnesota from New England, so that the disgruntled receiver could spend some time with his family on the east coast.  However, it later came out that Moss simply refused to travel with the team, and shortly thereafter (before Childress gave his bogus story to reporters), the head coach decided to cut the cantankerous receiver from the team.  Once again, the truth seemed to be sacrificed for the sake of public relations... And the Vikings' season continued to falter.

History will show the end result of the 2010 Vikings.  But regardless of the number of victories or losses, one point is crystal clear in considering the season's squandered opportunities:  It's clear that "truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment."  In the National Football League, it's standard practice for teams to broadcast half-truths and vague public statements as a means of maintaining a competetive edge against other teams.  But in this particular case, all of the misinformation and spun publicity conspired to create a downward spiral of discouragement and disillusionment, which ultimately seemed to take on a life of its own.  The same is true of lying tongues in any context:  business, family, politics, ministry, friendships... In all these situations, "truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment."