Integrity

Integrity

Blog – 6-21-17

I had no idea what to write about today. I was thinking and thinking and nothing was coming. So I prayed and asked God to give me a word, “Give me a word that somebody out there needs to hear.”

And He did. I don’t know who this word is for exactly, but the word He gave me is integrity.

As I pondered this word and what impact it has in our lives, I started thinking about integrity as it relates to steel and buildings. Structural integrity is the ability of an item to hold together under a load, including its own weight, without breaking or deforming excessively. Bridges and buildings that have lost their structural integrity must be torn down before they collapse and potentially kill someone.

What an awesome picture for our lives.

Integrity is all about being truthful, honest, and reliable. It’s about having honor in all our actions and being upright in our walk.

And just like a building, when we lose our personal integrity, we can’t hold together and we start deforming and breaking. When we take the easier, softer way and start traveling down the road of dishonesty and unreliability, we quickly crack and fall down. Sadly, Bill Cosby is an example of someone who has lost their integrity with others and has suffered a huge fall.

C.S. Lewis said this:

Integrity is doing the right thing…even when no one is watching.

I love that. So simple, yet profoundly true.

Having the moral courage to make our actions line up and be consistent with our beliefs of right and wrong at all times, whether in the privacy of our own home or out in public, is what integrity is all about. It’s being consistent whether people can see us being consistent or not.

In the workplace, it has been proven time and time again that integrity trumps intelligence. Trust is the foundation of leadership. It’s the thing that holds an organization together. People will forgive occasional mistakes others make because of ability, especially if they know the other person is trying. However, they won’t trust someone who has slips in character, someone who lacks integrity.

Integrity matters.

It matters to us, and it definitely matters to God. The Bible has a thing or two to say about this subject as well. I love this verse I found from The Message:

God can’t stand deceivers, but oh how he relishes integrity.                                     Proverbs 11:20 (The Message)

Maybe the reason we all hate dishonest people and we all know that integrity is incredibly important is because we are made in God’s image, and He absolutely abhors dishonesty. He relishes, He jumps for joy, He celebrates with us when we are honest and trustworthy in our day-to-day living. He loves it when we do the right thing even when no one else is watching because guess what, HE IS WATCHING!

It seems to me integrity is walking with God’s character in our hearts.

Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked                    paths will be found out.                                                                                                                                    Proverbs 10:9

If you’re reading this and you are starting to feel uncomfortable about something in your life, I encourage you to be honest with yourself. Ask yourself hard questions. Wrestle with your answers. Be open and honest with yourself and God about the answers. Talk to a trusted friend about it if you need to. Stop telling yourself “it’s no big deal, I’m not hurting anyone” when it is a big deal because the person you are hurting is yourself.

The integrity of a building doesn’t get lost overnight. It happens in small little cracks and failures that accumulate over time. Our integrity usually gets lost in the same way, so we need to be aware and on guard at all times.

And remember, integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching!

Hugs and love, Jill