Leadership 101 – Part 9 – Integrity

Love

Example

Accountable

Discipline

Equip

Respectable

Servant

Humility

Integrity

John Wesley once said, “Let your words be the genuine picture of your heart.” No games, no fronts, no facades please. Walk the walk, don’t just talk the talk. And don’t forget what Jesus said: “…whatever is in your heart determines what you say.” (Matthew 12:34b, NLT) I’m sure we can all think of times when words and actions have exposed the junk in our hearts… I sure can.

I have a friend who told me not long ago that “a person either has integrity or he doesn’t.” His statement caught me off guard and, honestly, it didn’t ring true in my heart. Who of us is so sanctified that they always walk the talk? Who can say that their heart is so right before God that it is never negatively exposed by their words or actions? King David certainly couldn’t… adultery followed by conspiracy to commit murder. Not exactly prime material for an info-mercial on character and integrity. (Interestingly, the Bible refers to David as a “man after God’s own heart” [1 Samuel 13:14], and says that his heart was “wholly true to the Lord his God.” [1 Kings 11:4]. Ah, the rich mercy of God.) So, as far as I am able to understand it, we all are in the process of having our integrity refined and purified. None of us has arrived… but by God’s grace we are making progress.

How important to this subject are the observations of John Henry Newman: “Never think we have a due knowledge of ourselves until we have been exposed to various kinds of temptations, and tried on every side. Intregrity on one side of our character is no voucher for integrity on another. We cannot tell how we would act if brought under temptations different from those we have already experienced. This thought should keep us humble. We are sinners but we do not know how great. He alone knows who died for our sins.”

Think about this… if it were you standing on your balcony that night while Bathsheba was bathing, would you have had her brought to your bedroom like David did? If Potiphar’s wife had seduced you day after day after day, would you have fled like Joseph did?

I have another friend who keeps a list in the back page of his Bible titled “Friends who have lost their integrity” and notes what their actions have cost them. A corresponding list titled “What I will lose if I lose my integrity” details what is at risk if he doesn’t walk the talk.

Hey men, there’s a lot at stake here. We have to keep things real… let’s not play games. Walk the talk and don’t forget what you will lose if you lose your integrity.

Lord, let us be wholly true to you.

P_____