I grew up in an age of "science fiction". As a young boy, I was ready to believe that we humans, on planet Earth, were being watched by alien creatures from a far-distant planet. Thankfully, I did "grow up", and no longer accept that proposition!
However, I have come to realise that I am "being watched"! Not by extra-terrestial beings, but by people all around me! What are they looking for? I suspect that they are looking for what we used to refer to as "integrity"! It's a word I don't hear very often these days. So what is it?
Integrity is a high standard of living based on a personal code of morality that doesn't succumb to the whim of the moment or the dictates of the majority. Integrity is to personal character what health is to the body, or 20/20 vision is to the eyes. People of integrity are whole; their lives are put together. People with integrity have nothing to hide and nothing to fear. Their lives are open books. They say to a watching world, "Go ahead and look. My behavior will match my beliefs. My walk will match my talk. My character will match my confession."
Integrity is not reputation - what others think of us. It is not success - what we have accomplished. Integrity embodies the sum total of our being and our actions. It originates in who we are as believers in Jesus Christ - accepted, valued, capable, and forgiven - but it expresses itself in the way we live and behave, no matter whether we are in church on Sunday or at work on Monday or in a lonely hotel room on Tuesday or suffering in a hospital bed on Thursday.
Unfortunately, as I have suggested above, integrity is in short supply and seems to be diminishing everyday. All too frequently our integrity is discarded upon the altar of fame, or fortune, or political opportunism. Sadly, what we want to achieve is more important than what we are to be. Integrity is lost when we focus on expedience more than excellence, on progress more than purity, on riches more than righteousness.
People are watching. They watch to see if our behaviour matches our belief, if our walk matches our talk, and if our character matches our confession. In a word, they watch to see if we have integrity.
Solomon wrote: "He who walks in integrity walks securely, but he who perverts his ways will be found out." (Proverbs 10:9).
How secure is your walk? How secure is mine? Others are watching!