Integrity

The English word “sincere” comes from the Latin “sincerus”, which is derived from the words sine and cereus; meaning “without” and “wax”.

I’ve read that when working with wood, many carpenters of long ago would use wax to hide their mistakes or imperfections in the wood. Eventually, when an item of furniture or a carving was finished, it would be stained or polished and the wax would then become indistinguishable. Later on, however, after a little usage and being subject to the elements, the wax would melt or crumble away and the ‘cover-up’ would become apparent.

The more professional wood workers of the day, however, chose only the finest wood and they worked with extreme care so as not to cause any damage. Of course, this was far more costly in terms of both time and money and so when they went to market place to compete and sell their wares, they would put up a sign that said, “sincerus”.

This is really the key to true success: In all your dealings be a person of integrity, and whatever you promise or say or do, be sincere and do it ‘without wax’!

Analogy adapted from a narrative by Zig Ziglar

A man took his son to the movies, and the son ran up to the popcorn counter and asked for the big bucket! The dad said, “Son, you’ll never eat all that!” The boy answered, “Don’t worry, Dad, I’m a lot bigger on the inside than on the outside.” – That’s what integrity and character is all about: being bigger on the inside.

Adapted from John Maxwell, 1999, The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, p.7

It is said that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), the British physician and author (creator of Sherlock Holmes), once played a practical joke on a dozen friends; all of them well-known public figures. He sent each of the men an anonymous telegram that simply said, “Flee at once. All is discovered.” – It’s reported that 24 hours later every one of them had left the country.

John Maxwell writes: “Someone told me about a newly elected judge who had won office in a special county election in America. During his acceptance speech, he said, “I wish to thank the 424 people who promised to vote for me. I wish to thank the 316 people who said they did vote for me. I wish to thank the 47 people who came out last Thursday to vote, and I wish to thanks the 26 folks who actually did vote for me.” How are you doing when it comes to following through on your commitments?”

Source: John Maxwell, 1999, The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, p.19-20

Abraham Lincoln was once involved in a heated discourse with some people whose argument was based purely on assumption, instead of fact. Lincoln asked them this question:

“If a man called the tail of a sheep a leg, how many legs would the sheep then have?”

“Five” was the unanimous reply.

“Wrong!” said Lincoln, “It would still have four. Calling a tail a leg does not make it one!”

A life of integrity is one that is not divided into compartments: James Cameron, producer of the movie Titanic, says, ‘The Titanic is a metaphor of life. We are all on the Titanic.’ When the Titanic set sail in 1912 it was declared to be ‘unsinkable’ because it was constructed using a new technology. The ship’s hull was divided into sixteen watertight compartments. Up to four of these compartments could be damaged or even flooded, and still the ship would float. Tragically, the Titanic sank on 15 April 1912 at 2.20am. 1,513 people lost their lives. At the time it was thought that five of its watertight compartments had been ruptured in a collision with an iceberg. However, on 1 September 1985, when the wreck of the Titanic was found lying upright on the ocean floor, there was no sign of the long gash previously thought to have been ripped in the ship’s hull. Now scientists posit that the collision’s impact buckled or loosened the seams in the adjacent hull plate’s core, causing them to separate and allowing water to flood in – thus sinking the unsinkable ship. What they discovered was that damage to one compartment affected all the rest.

Many people make the Titanic mistake. They think they can divide their lives into different ‘compartments’ and that what they do in one will not affect the rest. However, as Rick Warren (from whom I have taken this illustration) says, ‘A life of integrity is one that is not divided into compartments.’

INVITE/INVITATION

Source: Quoted by Nicky Gumbel, Bible in One Year, Day 104

Nicky Gumbel related how a young police officer was taking his final exam at Hendon Police College in north London. Here is one of the questions:

‘You are on a patrol in outer London when an explosion occurs in a gas main in a nearby street. On investigation you find that a large hole has been blown in the footpath and there is an overturned van lying nearby. Inside the van there is a strong smell of alcohol. Both occupants – a man and a woman – are injured. You recognise the woman as the wife of your Divisional Inspector, who is at present away in the USA. A passing motorist stops to offer you assistance and you realise that he is a man who is wanted for armed robbery. Suddenly a man runs out of a nearby house, shouting that his wife is expecting a baby and that the shock of the explosion has made the birth imminent. Another man is crying for help, having been blown into an adjacent canal by the explosion, and he cannot swim. – Bearing in mind the provisions of the Mental Health Act, describe in a few words what actions you would take. The officer thought for a moment, picked up his pen, and wrote: ‘I would take off my uniform and mingle with the crowd!’

We can sympathise with his answer, can’t we? As a Christian, it is often easier to take off our Christian uniform and mingle with the crowd. But we are called to be and remain distinctive, to retain our Christian identity, wherever we are and whatever the circumstances.

Nicky Gumbel, Alpha Questions of Life, 2007, Eastbourne: Kingsway Communications, p.220-221

There’s a story told of a young builder who had to learn the lesson of integrity the hard way. He married a building contractor’s daughter and the father-in-law wanted to give a boost to his new son-in-law. “Son,” he said, “I don’t want you to start at the bottom where I did. So I want you to go out and build the most tremendous house this town has ever seen, put the best of everything in it, make it a palace, and turn it over to me.”

Well this was an opportunity to make a killing. He hurried out to slap together a building that would survive two fairly stiff gales. In short order he was back to dear old dad. “Well, Dad, it’s finished.”

“Is it tremendous, is it a palace like I asked?”

“Yes-siree, Dad.”

“Is it really the finest house ever built, son?”

“Yes-siree, Dad.”

“All right, where is the bill? Is there a good profit in it for you?”

“Yes-siree, Dad.”

“Very good. Here is your cheque, and where is the deed?”

As he looked at the deed, the father said, “I didn’t tell you why I wanted that house to be the best house ever built. I wanted to do something special for you and my daughter to show you how much I love you… here take the deed, go live in the house – you built it for yourself!”

The young gold-digger crept out a shattered, frustrated man. He thought he was making a fortune at his father’s expense by saving money of inferior materials and short-cuts, but he cheated only himself.

Charlie Jones

Source: Charlie Jones, 1968, Life Is Tremendous, Wheaton Illinois: Living Books, Tyndale House Publishers, p39-40

I read about an experiment conducted on some teenage children to study the effects of peer pressure. The experiment was set up to see whether or not the young person would run with the crowd, even when they knew it was wrong to do so, or whether they would dare to be different and make a stand for what was right. This is what happened:

Some examiners staged an exercise in a school with a group of ten teenagers to, supposedly, test their eyesight. The examiners told the whole group that they would hold up some cards with three lines on them: lines A, B and C and each line would be of different length. All the students had to do was to raise their hand when the examiner pointed to the longest line. However, beforehand and behind closed doors, the examiners had secretly instructed nine of the students to deliberately give the wrong answer so that they could observe what the tenth would do. They were told to raise their hand and to always vote for the second longest line. (The tenth student had no idea that the other nine were colluding against him.)

When the first card was help up, it was apparent that line C was longer than the others but when the examiners pointed to line A (the second largest line) nine hands immediately shot in the air. The tenth teenager hesitated for a moment, glanced at his classmates and then also raised his hand. The examiners tried again with another card and as before nine hands were immediately raised supporting the wrong answer. Again the tenth student hesitated slightly but followed suit and also raised his hand. This happened time and time again with the same result each time.

Afterwards, the examiners revealed to the lad in question what had happened and they asked him why he had deliberately answered incorrectly. The young man replied that on the first occasion he assumed that he had misheard the question and so he followed the example set by his classmates. The second time around, he said that he realised the others had answered incorrectly but he didn’t want to attract attention to himself and so, even though he knew it was the wrong answer, he went along with them. Eventually he admitted to the examiners that he had continued along this path because he considered it more important to go along with the others and “fit in” rather than stand-alone and be right! The depressing thing is that he was not alone. In fact, nearly 80 per cent of the teenagers tested behaved in a similar fashion.

Integrity: Coca-Cola is a product that was invented over 100 years ago, but to this day only seven people in the world have ever known the secret “Coke” formula. The actual formula itself is kept under tight security in a safe in Atlanta, Georgia. It is a tightly kept secret that is worth a fortune!

Our deeds must be consistent with our creeds.

Rick Warren

If you go to a supermarket and look at the cereal packets or soft drinks or, for that matter, any of the supermarket’s own-brand products, you’ll see that the packaging design and the labels are often made to look very much like the regular manufacturers or the leading brand. Often the labelling is so deceptive that it’s only when you get up close can you tell which is which. The supermarket’s own-brand products are always cheaper and usually the quality of the product is reflected in the cheaper price! At the point of sale, however, what counts, for the discerning buyer at least, is not the price, or the labels, which can be misleading, but the contents; what’s inside.

Tom Wright