Don't let the devil hang his garbage on that nail
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One of the best and simplest description of integrity I've read is the following: "integrity is honoring your commitment, and behaving in the way you promised to behave, even when you don't feel like it."
Steve Farrar tells the following parable told by a Hatian pastor.
A certain man wanted to sell his house for $2000. Another man wanted to buy it very badly, but he was a poor man and he couldn't give the full price. After much bargaining, the owner agreed to sell the house to the man for $1000. But the reduced price came with a stipulation. The owner would sell the house, but he would keep ownership of a large nail, protruding from over the front door.
Several years later, the original owner decided he wanted to buy the house back. Understandably, the new owner was unwilling to sell.
As a result, the original owner went out, found the carcass of a dead dog in the street, and hung it from the nail he still owned. Soon, the house became unlivable, and the family was forced to sell to the owner of the nail.
The Haitian pastor concluded the story with these words: "If we leave the devil with even one small peg in our life, he will return to hang his rotten garbage on it."
The one who is bald, doesn't suddenly wake up and discover he is bald; it happens gradually, overtime, one hair at a time, until we wake up and exclaim, "Yikes, I'm bald."
The tiny cracks and fissures of our moral foundation may seldom be seen by the outside world.
Sometimes we don't even see them ourselves, but sooner or later, these fishers become cracks, and those cracks become rifts, and suddenly, and without warning, just like an earthquake they produce the destruction of a character, a relationship, or even life itself.
It was only a white lie," we say. "It's not a big deal," and we pass it off by saying "everyone does it."
As Yvonne Castaneda writes, "White lies are deemed acceptable because the intention is often a noble one—to protect someone from feeling hurt. But white lies have more to do with protecting ourselves. Many of us don't know how to embrace discomfort, and white lies are an easy way out." We say to ourselves it is only a little white lie, or a little exaggeration, or a questionable secretarial relationship, or a second glance-you get my drift.
Today I so appreciate the financial integrity displayed by a church I once served.
Someone in the church wanted to give me a pair of sneakers, but to receive them I was required to fill out a lengthy report documenting the source and reason I was gifted them.
Yes, such integrity may make purchase orders and check requests more time-consuming, but the church knew as believers that we are not to even give a hint of impropriety in conducting our business matters.
Some might say, having to fill out an extensive form just because someone wants to give me a pair of sneakers is going a bit too far, but no, not for the institution, organization, or person who wants to keep those fissures from forming, those cracks from developing, and those riffs from shifting and bringing down the foundation of our character. It is not worth it. If we give the enemy access to even one nail in our life, it places us in the high-risk bracket, and I don't want to be in that group. It is just too costly.
David prayed, "May integrity and honesty protect me, for I put my hope in you." (Psalm 25: 20)
What a great prayer for David, and what a great prayer for you and me.
 | Tom Crenshaw serves as Connections Pastor of the New Monmouth Baptist Church (non denominational) where he previously served as a three year interim.He has been married to Jean for almost 50 years, and they have four children, all of whom are teachers.Tom loves perennial gardening, umpiring high school baseball, coaching baseball and football, fishing for small mouth bass, rooting for his favorite team, the Cleveland Indians, and listening to ‘real’ country music, the classic kind. Learn More » |
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