VALUING INTEGRITY

In these divisive days, there might be one thing that everyone could agree is profitable.  Integrity.  That's a word that we recognize when we see it, but wrapping words around it might be tricky.

How would you describe integrity?

Could it be that a person has integrity when all of their lifehats mesh?

I am a wife, mother, Mimi, citizen, church member, Christ lover, retired teacher, friend, and blogger.  All my life areas have hats, and all the hats should mesh like the teeth of a gear.

On the political stage, there have been

some recent obvious illustrations for the lack of integrity.

The Governor of California threw in an outside woman hat that didn't mesh with his husband hat.  Proverbs says "the one who conducts himself in integrity will live securely, but the one who behaves perversely will be found out."  

In Governor Schwarzenegger's case, it took 14 years to be found out.  But think of the terrible stripping sound when the gears clashed in their home.  Pray for the pain and shame of that betrayal as it falls on the innocent. 

Newt Gingrich's private life is complicated.  He has promised three women he would be there "till death do us part".  Some folks may set that aside because they feel it is more important for the country to have a political professor who gets our need for historical context in the national debate.  But there are more troubling details.

When Callista Gingrich released financial disclosure records in 2006/2007 as part of her government job, there was a considerable revolving charge account debt.  Some might argue about the validity of challenging their spending habits, but I find two compelling things.  The debt was very large (a quarter to a half mil), and it was "trinket debt" (@Tiffany's).  Doesn't such a case define the country's number one problem...as it relates to debt?

Americans go for flashy candidates, but then we can't figure out why they disappoint.  Presidential hair does not make a leader with a core.  Can it be enough for a candidate to SAY they have a God hat, or shouldn't we reach for men/women who have a demonstrable life of integrity?  Only One was perfect, but doesn't a credible life-resume MATTER? 

When President Clinton was our leader, we were told that his compartmentalization didn't matter because the economy was good.  Really?  Now we have a generation of young people for whom oral sex is humdrum.

Unmeshed lifehats DO matter.  Intelligence is not more important than fidelity.  Prosperity is not more important than godliness.  Character qualities come together in a package or the package comes apart.

When our lifehats are all submitted to God's authority, the intersection is integrity.  So let's find a leader who shows in their resume that they have ALREADY lived such a life.  Let's reach for a person with common sense and dignity...a person who can seamlessly wear multiple hats without stripping any gears.

Let's value integrity.