Carolyn and I have begun to read together John Piper's excellent devotional book Taste and See. She reads it and underlines before going to work at BHS, and then when I pick it up to read, I see her thoughts and record some of my own. We encourage you to consider it as a resource for personal or marital devotions.

On day five, he writes about Proverbs 22.13:

The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!”(Proverbs 22:13 ESV)

He points out that he would have expected the coward to say that, not the sluggard. And then the bombshell:

"..our heart exploits our mind to justify what the heart wants. That is, our deepest desires precede the rational functioning of our minds and incline the mind to perceive and think in a way that will make the desires look right. It is an illusion to think that our hearts are neutral and incline in accordance with cool, rational observation of truth. On the contrary, we feel powerful desires or fears in our hearts, and then our minds bend reality to justify the desires and fears.

So why does the lazy person lie about a lion? Because he really just wants to stay home. The sad reality is that we all understand these mental gymnastics, and repetitive use of them actually leads us to believe the lies we tell ourselves.

Your mind is being exploited... by your heart.