Wishy-washy

Like many Americans, I grew up watching Peanuts holiday cartoons. In accordance with my annual tradition, I recently watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. As a kid, I loved watching Snoopy be the rock star of the day, setting up everything needed for the iconic dinner. As an adult, I now catch on to all the complicated relationships the Charlie Brown gang had with each other.

The Thanksgiving episode demonstrates the problem of not letting your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no. Peppermint Patty invites herself over to Charlie Brown's house for a Thanksgiving dinner that he's not having. Instead of telling her no, he gets stressed out and goes out of his way to accommodate her plans. Jesus says in Matthew 5:37,  “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” James advises the same, “But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by
heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation” (James 5:12).

Why is it evil to say “let me think about it” or “I'll pray about it” or “uh?” Most of the time, when someone asks us a yes or no question, we know how we want to respond but instead of giving our honest answer, we try to placate the questioner. By not answering directly, we can end up lying or allowing a situation to manifest that causes us to become angry and bitter. These things are in disobedience to God's command for us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Mark 12:31).

So why are we so wishy-washy? Because we don't want to deal with the discomfort of honesty. But if we really evaluate that, not telling the truth up front is way more uncomfortable in the long run. Jesus said that we should abide in His word and the truth would set us free (John 8:31-32). And it will. It will free us from lies and from being wishy-washy.