Walk With Integrity

Wednesday August 28, 2013

A walk (or life) of integrity is a life that works.  Life lived without integrity falls apart – literally!

The word “integrity” is usually associated with adherence to a strong code of moral values and principles.  The concept is as old as the Garden of Eden, and as fresh as the computer chip that’s allowing you to read this devotion.  Integrated circuits work to produce the memory/workings of that iPhone™ or PC.  Circuits that tell each other the truth work; circuits that give false information to the rest of the device are what we call a “virus”; a big problem! 

To be “integrated” is to be whole, meaning put-together and functioning in cooperation.  In human relationships integrity means thoughts, words and actions are all the same.  Opposites of the word include “lying, cheating, stealing, broken promises….” And the list goes on, painfully long.

If living a life of integrity means always telling the truth, how, according to the Psalmist, does that make you “joyful”?  Especially considering that sometimes telling the truth involves more pain (in the short run) than telling a small lie!  Where’s the harm?

Painful Truth

The smallest deviation from truth is prevarication (a lie).  When President Richard Nixon resigned from office, it was the last act of a failed presidency.  The trail led back to a lack of integrity – playing loose with the rules of walking in truth.

Each year theology students at Duke Divinity School attend a required seminar on what kind of integrity is expected in the student concerning their studies and work turned-in.  Plagiarism, taking someone else’s words and submitting them as your own, without giving credit to the author, is cause for immediate course failure and dismissal from school. 

Isn’t that drastic?  Whatever happened to second chances, grace?  If a divinity student will lie about the source to his professor, he will lie to a congregation.

It’s that important

Presidents and preachers aside, what about you?

In a marriage, or relationships between cousins and sisters, down to dealings with the neighborhood butcher….every transaction of speech and action is subject to truth.  Without it, the integrity of the community begins to break apart like a china cup dropped on a hardwood floor.

This is why Paul wrote:  

…we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.      Ephesians 4: 15b (NLT)

A life of integrity demands speaking the truth; it’s the joyful, loving way to live.

Finding a Straight Path

Wednesday July 10, 2013

“Walking” (or living our life) by God’s law is viewed by some as a constricting set of burdens that won’t let you have fun or think for yourself.  A little deeper investigation of the word “law” helps us understand it’s just the opposite.  The Psalmist starts off the longest chapter in the Bible, which is all about God’s Word/Law, by telling us that those who walk in it are “happy” or blessed.  It’s is like cooperating with the principles of our natural environment.  When you’re in an airplane at 15,000 feet, it is wise not to test gravity without a parachute. 

In the same way, we have been created in God’s image, a soul, with spirit and body.  The spiritual “laws” of God correspond to our nature; when we ignore God’s law, and wander spiritually, we suffer the consequences of being separated from that for which we were created, a happy, blessed relationship with our Creator.

A great example of this is the Emmaus Road committee (Luke 24).  After the death of Jesus, these two disciples were getting out of town (they probably figured if the religious leaders had their leader crucified, they were next).  When Jesus appeared to them they were confused, downhearted and trying to make sense of how their lives had been turned upside-down, and what to do next.  They told Jesus, “We had hoped He (Jesus) was the real deal”.

Now, the “law” of the Lord (which would have made them “happy” or blessed) said to trust what Jesus had said; instead, they trusted what the circumstances appeared to be. 

They had pinned their hopes primarily on the “Triumphal Entry” of Jesus in Jerusalem a week before.  They saw their future in terms of Jesus being in charge – it was going to be miracles for everybody; the end of living through hard times and oppression was here! 

But they were blind because their focus was on what human desires craved, more so than on what Jesus had told them plainly about His suffering.  They should have been praying like the Psalmist, “Open my eyes, that I may see…” ^{(Psalm 119:18)}

Well, Jesus took those Emmaus Road disciples back to spiritual kindergarten…back to Scripture, and showed them the way to have their path straightened-out.  He showed them the way to happy, blessed living.

Are you happy?

How would you describe your life right now?  Are you happy?  Are you blessed? 

And on what basis is that so? 

·        Is it because things are going well? 

·        Is there enough money in the bank to cover your bills? 

·        Health report good? 

·        Your dog hasn’t bit the mailman lately?

Do you trust more in the circumstances than living (walking) in the law of the Lord?