It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. [Galatians 5:19-21a (MSG)]
God can’t stand deceivers, but oh how he relishes integrity. [Proverbs 11:20 (MSG)]
Last month, I read an article about a local construction company. Its founders built a successful business by focusing on a core set of values that are bookended by integrity and faith in God. Values such as leadership, lasting relationships, healthy environment, and quality are found in between those two. I recalled a dinner we had just attended that honored five businesses for their excellence. In their acceptance speeches, nearly every CEO mentioned integrity as one of his company’s core values. Considering how many corporate scandals have hit the news lately, it was heartening to find successful businesses that consider integrity to be one of their guiding principles. In just the last few months, the news has been filled with stories about corporate greed, insider trading, hacking schemes, Medicare fraud, kickbacks, identity theft, phony accounts, false claims, bribery, corruption and tax, securities, and accounting fraud. Integrity seems to be in short supply these days.
Integrity is being honest, fair and reliable. It is having soundness of moral character and being honorable, incorruptible and straightforward. It is having the courage to do the right thing in all situations. It is conducting our lives in private the same way we do in public. It is treating people who can do us favors the same way we treat those who can’t. It is what each and every person and each and every business should have but, unfortunately, often doesn’t.
Out of curiosity, I looked up the published core beliefs or corporate values of several of the recent black sheep of the business world and was surprised to see that many of them listed things like integrity, doing what’s right for their customers, ethics, and honesty as one or more of their guiding principles. Apparently, it’s easy to say we believe in integrity but much harder to act with it. What I didn’t find on any of those websites, however, was any mention of faith in God. Perhaps the mistake those scandal-ridden businesses made was not having a value like integrity bookended with faith in God. After all, it’s only through the power of the Holy Spirit that our sinful nature can be conquered.
Live so that when your children think of fairness and integrity, they think of you. [H. Jackson Brown, Jr.]
Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. [2 Peter 1:3 (MSG)]
But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. [Galatians 5:22-23 (MSG)]
In our part of Florida, yellow lights tend to mean “speed up” and red lights are just mere suggestions so no one really expects anyone to stop at a yellow. Although the light had just turned yellow, the elderly gentleman stopped his car. “The #@!% idiot should have sped through the intersection!” said the women following him. Having been tailgating his car, she was furious at having to brake so abruptly. Already late, now she’d be even later. Moreover, the unexpected stop caused her to spill her coffee and drop both her cell phone and makeup. Angry, she laid on the horn, called him a few more choice expletives, shook her fists and even gave him the middle-finger salute! She was in mid-rant when she looked up to see a police officer at her window. He politely ordered her to exit the car. Having forgotten her driver’s license in another purse, she was transported to the police station, fingerprinted, photographed, and finally placed in a holding cell.
Patience may be one of the fruits of the Spirit but there appears to be a shortage of it in my life’s orchard. Paul tells us that hardships teach us patience and patience develops strength of character but I imagine most of us are impatient to see all of that character building come to an end. Moses must have grown impatient leading the Israelites all those years, yet consider the patience God had during those same forty years as He dealt with His children’s disobedience, ingratitude and complaints. In fact, consider how patient God has been with mankind since the beginning of time. We err and stray, forget and disobey, ignore, defy and even deny Him, yet He still hasn’t given up on us. Mercifully, we have a God who loves us and, as Paul tells us, love is patient and kind. Remembering that the measure we use to give will be used to measure what we receive, we must be patient with others if we want God to be patient with us.
Printed on the tee-shirt were Paul’s words from Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things.” While the shirt, part of a new line of Christian workout wear, would be a great conversation starter at the gym, the message is somewhat misleading. I could wear that shirt and say those words but, try as I might, I’d still be unable to bench press 450 pounds! That, however, is not why the message is misleading. It’s because the rest and most important part of Paul’s words—“through Christ who strengthens me”—are missing. Paul’s words are not words of self-sufficiency but of God’s all-sufficiency. The apostle was not boasting of himself and his strength but rather of God’s strength and power that enable us to do His work.
Many years ago, we had a teen-aged foster daughter. Along with a smoking habit, she brought along plenty of emotional baggage. Choosing our battles carefully, we decided that an outright prohibition on smoking would not top our list. Instead, we made the rule that she couldn’t smoke in our presence or in our house. One night, after walking outside for a cigarette, she immediately returned. She explained that while she knew smoking outside was allowed, she also understood it was something we didn’t want her to do. Wanting to please us, she returned to the house and decided to quit. Hallelujah! She’d seen the difference between obeying the letter of the law and living the spirit of it. She recognized that rules aren’t necessarily made to keep something from us, but are made to get something better for us. She’d come to experience the joy that comes from pleasing the ones who love her.
Real estate ads can be somewhat misleading. “Needs TLC” usually means structural damage; a “handy-man special” requires rehabbing and money; “waterfront” probably has a basement that floods; “cozy” means really small and “intimate” is even smaller than cozy. “Tear-down,” however, means just that; while the property may have value, the house isn’t worth renovating. In our southwest Florida community, it is not unusual to see advertisements for homes with an asking price in the seven digit territory (none of which need TLC, handymen, have flooded basements, are cozy or intimate.) Since it’s difficult to believe there’s anything needing improvement in such expensive houses, the shocker is that some of those homes are listed as tear-downs. That hefty asking price is for the privilege of tearing down the existing structure and spending several millions more to build another one in its place.
