Is Your Integrity Showing?
"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?" -- Luke 16:10-11
A man I know works hard to earn a good living for his wife and children. He also loves the Lord with all his heart. Can the two live together or must one compromise for the other?
In his heart, his love for Jesus comes first. He will gladly sacrifice a sale or a paycheck. He proved that recently when a customer got angry over a misunderstanding. This man apologized and followed the customer outside. Whether he bought the product or not, he wanted the man to know in his heart that he had never intended to mislead him. He had tried to communicate clearly and he had failed. He took responsibility.
The customer saw his sincerity and understand that miscommunication takes two or more. He purchased the brought and a relationship was born. And it came from integrity and a love by both men for Jesus.
There's another man who works at the same company who isn't quite the same. Oh, he loves Jesus. He even teaches a Sunday School Class every other week. But his actions don't always reflect his claims.
He's all about the dollar. The company's bottom line and his are all tied together. He questions everything, right down to the last 15 minutes of an hourly employee. It would be easy to excuse it as just being frugal but here's the thing: he's too suspicious when there is no reason to be. As a member of my own Sunday School Class said recently: We tend to see in others the flaws we ignore in ourselves. In other words, this man would not be honest in these situations and he can't accept that others might be honest. His lack of integrity is showing.
How we live our lives reflects our integrity, sometimes in ways we don't see. Are you honest in your daily life? Do others see your faith in how you live out your integrity? There are few things that turn people away from Jesus like a Christian who doesn't live an honest life.
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