Integrity

Integrity: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles, moral uprightness

The wise of heart will receive commandments,

but a babbling fool will come to ruin.

^{9  r}Whoever walks in integrity walks securely,

but he who makes his ways crooked ^swill be found out.

¹⁰  Whoever ^twinks the eye causes trouble,

and a babbling fool will come to ruin.

Proverbs 10:8-10 ESV

       How many of us have witnessed a press conference or watched a YouTube clips of some famous person issuing some sort of apology for something they said or did.  These clips usually end with some sort of phrase of “this isn’t really who I am as a person” or “how they will try and do better in the future”.  It seems like most of the apologies are scripted, insincere, and more about damage/image control than being actually sorry for said stupid actions or speech.  Sports columnist Rick Riley penned a satire column a number of years back giving athletes a guide on how to apologize for their said transgression and how they were going to be better people.  I know we are all people and we all do and say stupid things, and we need to own up to them without giving some sort of canned and insincere apology.  We have to do better than doing or saying something and then just asking for forgiveness later, because when we do this, are we really sorry?  I think this issue might have something to do with our integrity and how we live our life. 

      One of the more popular definitions of integrity is what are we doing when no one is looking.  There is truth in this definition and I think it tries to make our personal and public life a little more streamed lined and that we do not come off as a hypocrite.  I think one who strives to live a life of integrity cares for not only what they do when no one is watching or listening, but takes these things into consideration and lives them out also.

    The first one is the idea that our intentions matter.  The classic question is that if our intentions are good, but we still do the wrong thing, are we still good.  In essence, if we steal from drug dealers to give money to those who are needy and that have been affected by addiction, we don’t have to do any jail time because our intentions were pure and we actually helped people.  Doing something wrong, no matter how good our intentions are, is still wrong unfortunately.  This is something that I have struggled with because in one aspect, it takes out vigilanty justice of  us giving people what we think they deserve.  Knowing myself, I know I can be really biased towards people both for the good and bad, and it is often because I wear rose colored glasses and I know I am not the only one who struggles with this.  We tend to take sides based on who we like and our own biases.  We can not always judge intentions because we do not know what the other person is thinking and how often people put out smoke screens to hide what they are really thinking or what their real intentions are.  Throughout all of Scripture, it reminds us that as people we may look at outward actions, but God looks at the heart.  We can not use a smoke screen with God, and knows what our true motives and actions are and we reveal them. 

     The second part about integrity is that how often do we do the right thing, but for the wrong reason.  Even doing the right thing for the wrong reason is still wrong, because it often us meant for some sort of personal gain.  How often do we do something for the pat on the back, or to get some favor, or just to make ourselves look better.  This is more about the show and lest about the go and it makes us a used sales car person.  The only reason integrity and character is in our vocabulary is because when we use those words, it makes us appear better than what we really are? .When we have to start justifying our actions to God, ourselves, and even others, we might have a problem.  When we start justifying, we tend to care more about our own wants, feelings and whims.  Some guy named Jesus calls this being a white washed tomb.  We can look all pretty on the outside but we are dead and rotting on the inside and we stink spiritually and morally. Eventually it will catch up with us.   

      The third idea is that when start to do what we want and justifying it, it means that absolute Truth and morality are being thrown out the window.  When we are left to our own whims, morality and absolute truth becomes subjective, integrity doesn’t really matter.  This means that life is a free for all and we can do whatever we want to when we want to.  Call me old fashioned, but integrity that is not based on something that is not true and always changing  isn’t integrity, but arrogance.  It is arrogance thinking that we know how to live our lives and how dare other people tell us how we should live our lives.  To wrap it up, some guy by the name of Jesus told us that He was the way, the truth and the life, and that not one gets to the Father but through Him.  In essence, our integrity is rooted in the Truth of Jesus and who He says He is, and because Jesus is the dedfinition and embodiment of objective Truth and He never changes.

          Questions:

          Is our integrity based on whims or a set standard?

          When we do something wrong, are we sorry for the action or for getting caught?

          Even though its wrong, what makes the subjective lifestyle so appealing?