A Battle for Integrity

Taken from Charles R. Swindoll, "A Battle for Integrity," Insights (March 2003): 1-2. Copyright © 2003, Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used with permission.


I must tell you that I have been troubled regarding the face of things in our country and within the family of God. My major battle has had to do with one word, one concept. My battle has to do with integrity.
In our nation--and in the church--there has been a falling away, a breakdown, and a compromise in integrity. Recent headlines have taught us that the boom of the 1990s was built on a foundation devoid of integrity. But compromise isn't limited to CEOs who greedily sell out their employees or to pork-happy politicians. All too often we find a moral laxity behind our pews and, even worse, behind the pulpit.
Let me define what I mean by integrity. Webster's tells us integrity means "an unimpaired condition."1 It means to be sound. The Hebrew word for integrity, tom, also means to be complete or solid.
So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them with his skillful hands. (Psalm 78:72)
Integrity is completeness or soundness. You have integrity if you complete a job even when no one is looking. You have integrity if you keep your word even when no one checks up on you. You have integrity if you keep your promises. Integrity means the absence of duplicity and is the opposite of hypocrisy. If you are a person of integrity, you will do what you say. What you declare, you will do your best to be. Integrity also includes financial accountability, personal reliability, and private purity. A person with integrity does not manipulate others. He or she is not prone to arrogance or self-praise. Integrity even invites constructive and necessary criticism because it applauds accountability. It's sound. It's solid. It's complete.
Integrity is rock-like. It won't crack when it has to stand alone, and it won't crumble though the pressure mounts. Integrity keeps one from fearing the white light of examination or resisting the exacting demands of close scrutiny. It's honesty at all costs.
The words of Louis Adamic seem fitting, "There is a certain blend of courage, integrity, character and principle which has no satisfactory dictionary name but has been called different things at different times in different countries. Our American name for it is 'guts.'"2
I like that. Integrity is having the guts to tell the truth, even if it may hurt to do so. Integrity is having the guts to be honest, even though cheating may bring about a better grade. Integrity is having the guts to quote sources rather than to plagiarize.
But there are some things integrity is not. It is not sinless perfection. A person with integrity does not live a life absolutely free of sin. No one does. But one with integrity quickly acknowledges his failures and doesn't hide the wrong.
Now, in addressing this crucial mark of character, I could come across as the "white knight," but you know me better than that. I fail like everyone else. The sooner you remember that, the better we'll get along. But concerning the issue of integrity, I give you my word. You will know if I have failed or if Insight for Living has failed in some way. I will tell you. I will not lead you to believe something is true if it is false. That is the least I can do as a minister of the Gospel.
Integrity is essential in the church, in the marketplace, and especially in the home. When you walk in integrity, you leave it as a legacy for your children to follow (Proverbs 20:7). It's what I call the father's thumbprint. Blessed are you if you had a father with integrity and a mother with guts.
When you work with integrity, you honor the Lord. Regardless of your profession, your character and conduct are methods of ministry. Over 50 years ago, Elton Trueblood wrote,
It is hard to think of any job in which the moral element is lacking. The skill of the dentist is wholly irrelevant if he is unprincipled and irresponsible. There is little, in that case, to keep him from extracting teeth unnecessarily, because the patient is usually in a helpless situation. It is easy to see the harm that can be done by an unprincipled lawyer. Indeed, such a man is far more dangerous if he is skilled than if he is not skilled.3
Do you put wire in walls? Do you repair cars? Do you work with numbers? Do you sell clothes? Perhaps you practice law or medicine. The important thing is not what work you do, but whether you do your work with integrity. Perhaps you labor behind the scenes, and your only thanks is the inner satisfaction of a job done right. Do you cheat on your exams? Are you cheating on your mate? Some have the audacity to do such things and call themselves Christians. No wonder the world is confused!
You want to shock the world? Start here--demonstrating the guts to do what's right when no one is looking. It takes real guts to stand strong with integrity in a culture weakened by hypocrisy. Start today.

People of God

I just finished reading a book I started 6 years ago; the auto-biography of Billy Graham. It was great to read how God has used this man throughout most of the 20th century. The best part of the book was him giving all the glory to God. After years of preaching and serving presidents, royalty, and the like, he still refers to himself as the farm boy from North Carolina. God can use the humbly to move mountains. I can remember my parents taking me to see him preach way back in the 1970’s when he first came to the Hampton Roads area. I only remember that there were a lot of people at the Norfolk Scope. I couldn’t have been older than 7 or 8, but I remember God using him back then. I’m sure Billy Graham will be written about in the centuries to come (if Christ doesn’t return soon).

I shared with the men who attend the weekly Men’s Bible Group that God had used and is using Billy Graham, but there are people who do the same thing every week that the world as a whole will never read about.

For those of us who serve God everyday, we do so not for notoriety. We do so because God served us from an eternity of damnation and we are thankful. God has used Dr. Graham greatly, but God also uses the average Christian everyday to reach out to the world with the love and giving of Christ.

If you are serving God and feel that people aren’t giving you thanks, don’t worry yourself about it. God, Himself, will honor you with crowns. And with great joy, we will be able to give those crowns back to the One and only Jesus Christ, our Savior and our Lord.

Keep doing what God has called you to do; to love and serve others.

The Right Foundation

In order to have a solid and safe building, the foundation must be done right. If the foundation isn’t laid properly, the building will not be level or balanced developing into major issues in the future.

Jesus referred to Himself as the “Chief Cornerstone” when talking to His followers. A cornerstone is used to make a building level in all sides. God the Father is the foundation in which Jesus built His church. God is the perfect foundation to build anything. We can rely on Him to make everything level and balanced in our lives.

Without God in our lives, we aren’t balanced. Since there is no foundation, cracks form and our lives just fall apart. God as our foundation gives us something level to build upon and Jesus as the cornerstone makes everything balanced.

If you want your live to matter and be solid, build it on “The Rock” and not just sand. If you build on solid ground, the trials and storms of live will come but not destroy. If you build on the sand, the trials and storms of live will destroy what you build.

Make sure you foundation is solid. The most solid foundation to build upon is the One who created us.

Waiting


I had a dream the other night that caused me to be uneasy. The dream was me waiting in a checkout line at Sears. I’m waiting for a very long time. When it was time for me to be next the clerk walked about to retrieve what I was trying to buy. When the man returned, he apologized for the delay but explained it would be a little bit longer. He handed me 2 pieces of what looked like machine parts. He told me to be patient and the other needed parts will arrive shortly. I awoke uneasy because I knew the meaning of the dream.

I see that the dream is about me waiting on God to open the door to the next step of my walk with Him. I feel that I’ve been waiting forever to start the next level of church planting but I know that God’s timetable is not the same as mine. I know that while waiting for God to move, this is the time I should be listening to Him through reading His word.

I have had an opportunity to meet a gentleman in Montana who shared with me that he waited 8 years for God to open the door for him and his family to move to Montana to pastor a church. His testimony reminded me of men in the Bible who waited on God. Abraham waited on God to give him a son. Abraham was over 100 years old when God gave him a son. Joseph waited on God to fulfill the dream He gave him when he was a teenager. Joseph waited 20 years. Moses was given the assignment to free Israel from Egypt but had to wait 80 years before God could use him to do so. There are many examples of people waiting on God to fulfill what He wanted them to accomplish.

I feel God uses the time between our calling and our fulfilling the call to mold us to the people we need to be in order to complete the task. I know when He opens the door for me to move through, I will be who I need to be in order that God will get the glory.