Integrity, Or The Lack Of It, Often Drives The Perception of Others
Word-of-the-Day: ‘<David prayed,> I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things I have given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you.’ (1 Chronicles 29:17)
Your eyes are witnesses to integrity, or the lack of it. Integrity is best described as ‘doing the right thing, even when no one else is watching’. Most Americans, a vast majority in fact, have a great deal of integrity when it comes to their interactions with others. We see people who help others in their time of need, giving their time to change a flat tire for a person stopped on a roadside or donating money for a charitable cause.
While we may not be as well-mannered as we used to be, holding the door open for a woman, or saying ‘Thank You’ to those who cater to our needs like to the cashier at the store or the waitress at the restaurant, we usually aren’t rude to them, either, even though they may be surly or error-prone in their service.
A couple of great examples recently have come to the forefront on the integrity of Americans. Soccer, or globally futbol’s World Cup Tournament is being held primarily in the United States, and many fans of the participating nations are visiting to see their national teams play. Almost everyone of these fans have proclaimed their heartfelt gratitude for the American people and the American culture, from the ample bounties of our food servings, our culture of ‘free refills’ on drinks (and the size of the cups provided), and the kindness shown them. Some, like the Japanese fans, reciprocate; the Japanese, at the end of their team’s matches, began whipping out garbage bags and picking up after themselves and other attendees in the stands, ensuring ‘no trash is left behind’, a great show of respect and gratitude to their American hosts.
Another was this year’s ‘USA 250’ Independence Day celebrations; in the middle of the fanfare of our soccer guests finding the US to be great hosts, this year’s celebrations of our nation’s birth were, as we said back in the day, ‘off the hook’. It is estimated over one-million officially-sanctioned munitions were set off across cities and municipalities in the US (and millions more from our fellow citizens and countrymen, legally or not), with some of the grandest displays in Washington, DC and Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. There was the week-long ‘Great American State Fair’ on the National Mall, and numerous concerts and events prior to and on the 4th of July commemorating the creation and signing of our Declaration of Independence.
But from these positive examples of integrity and the favorable reactions to these examples come the negative. The foreign fans were pleasantly surprised at the kindness given to them by Americans due to their media sources painting a perception of America as dismal and dark, full of crime and disrepair with Americans not being friendly but abrasive, with our services lacking in personable touch, and our food poor and bland.
Their experiences are the opposite; in fact, airports have had to start selling ranch dressing, something we Americans take for granted, at gate-side kiosks in airports for our foreign friends to take home with them as they have found it, and other American staples delicious in flavor they can’t find at home.
Another is the American media’s widespread opinion pieces of ‘anti-patriotism’; stories of media journalists on opinion columnists who were dismayed by the events and activities of patriotic events, trying to peddle their ‘Debbie Downer’ mentality to cast a pall over the holiday weekend that many enjoyed as one of the best celebrations of American freedom in the 250-year history of our nation.
Their lack of integrity comes from holding onto the lies of their beliefs. To many in the media, their belief in the United States, or the President, or Americans and American culture being evil has permeated them into this false pretense. Their belief in the lie has overwhelmed their sense of truth, until the lie becomes their truth. True integrity accepts the Truth, not matter how harsh or how bad it may be; it also accepts when there is good within bad times or bad people.
1 Chronicles 29 is a prayer by King David for God’s provisions in the giving of treasures and material for the construction of the Temple. Though David was flawed, he was Righteous and a man with great integrity. David has committed many sins, including adultery and murder, but when confronted he realized he had believed the lies he told himself, and upon that realization repented and accepted the consequences of those sins. His people were flawed as he was, yet he had the integrity to ask God to accept their gifts for the Temple his son Solomon would build.
As David did, we are also flawed and are nowhere near perfect. We do have our cracks and imperfections; our nation does have high crime in several of our urban areas, and we do tend to occasionally come off as ‘know-it-all’, ugly Americans to some foreigners. But our integrity provides that we are to, in love of our neighbors and guests, be kind and generous to them, to recognize the sacrifices of those who came before to create and maintain our great nation, and not allow the negatives waves of anti-American sentiment to throw us off course.
Instead, we need to focus on God, and through Him be that beacon of Hope and foundation of strength, doing the Righteous acts of kindness to others and respect and acknowledge the Truth. The proof of our integrity is through the testimony we have of what the Lord is doing in our lives, and the testimony of what others see in our deeds and actions, and the testimony we have of ourselves to be self-accountable.
Lies are evil. The worst lies are often the lies we tell ourselves. Truth is Godly. The best Truth are often the Truths we hold ourselves accountable to – even if it is shows we are initially flawed, it’s what we do to correct ourselves that best shine the light on our integrity and Righteousness.
