the genuine article

There is a word that’s been dogging my trail for several weeks. Just one word. But it’s a big word. Huge. (That's not the word).

We are on the tail-end of the presidential elections. Lines are being drawn, distinctions pointed out, strategies formulated, priorities enumerated, and debates enjoined. The point of it all, presumably, is for the people of this country to make a choice as to who will take it forward.

There are accusations, allegations, confrontations, alignments, categorizations. The two camps dig for dirt and throw it in ever-increasing amounts, even if they put a soft spin on it so they don’t come across too harsh.

In the pursuit of this, mucho dollars have been donated to one or the other candidate’s campaign. According to The New York Times, President Obama has raised $687M(illion) and Mr Romney $633M (http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/campaign-finance).  That’s over $1.3B(illion) between the two by mid-October. It remains to be seen what the final tally will be, but some estimate it at $2B.

Consider this: what does that all speak to? Perhaps the fact that the race is not to the swift or the diligent, but to the biggest fund-raiser, or even the better debater. Wow.  

So that while the posturing and pretense play on, and the money changes hands, the real-life world of reality continues to elude us as we become voters, and fall-in with all the other sheep that want to think we actually influence the running of the great USofA. Maybe. 

(I questioned myself on the wisdom of leaving this paragraph here, knowing the ire it could inspire. It’s here.)

And the peons (think pee-ons) like us are struggling to define ourselves in the definitions we see on the tele, the media houses driving our ache to be defined as Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, ass or jackass.

And then we have the ol’ reliable church, just the place to be told (advised, if you will) who you should vote for, and who you should not vote for. I have heard it said that if you vote for a particular candidate you can’t be a Christian … really? … wow… really??

The other issue that comes to mind in the pursuit of the word that’s been hounding me is abuse. A child suffers sexual abuse at the hands of some family member or guardian or babysitter or whoever, and the abuse is virtually ingrained and haunts their marriage, their relations with the children, etc.

Worse yet, far, far worse, in my estimation, is abuse at the hands of a ‘pastor’ or other church leader. A man, charged by God with the tender care of His sheep, twists his authority and uses his power to undermine the very humanity of a child and the very goodness of God. Wickedness of the first order.  It occurs to me that the anger and sense of retribution Jesus felt and expressed to the religious leadership of his day is nothing compared to what will befall those who abuse under the sign of the cross.

It takes significant effort and willpower, along with tremendous support, often including professional help, for these people to move on in their humanity dragging such a load; that’s if they ever allow themselves to confess it to themselves or, more significantly, to anyone else. That person is damaged, injured, hobbled - and this at the very core of their being. Virtually every relationship they are involved in is burdened by this baggage.

My example is Jesus, or so I claim. The upshot of that is my thinking, my belief-system, my speech, my actions, my affiliations, my ‘career’, my .. whatever, need to reflect that. Ya? In as much as they don’t speak to that I am being disingenuous.

Integrity (ah! the word!) has to do with a state of being whole, sound or complete; a state of being true to the core principles, adherent to a certain code of values, whatever they may be. Think ‘fullness’, ‘soundness’, ‘sincerity’, 'genuine' and the like. The Hebrew word ‘shalom’ speaks to this. Research it.

In the raw that means being true to myself.

When we allow our principles to be eroded and defrauded for whatever reason (even self-preservation), we defile our integrity. When we allow the principles of any group or body to which we belong to be likewise compromised without objecting, we defile our integrity, and that of the group. The ‘truth’ is we are untrue to ourselves - and there is possibly no greater lie.

How do we look the person in the mirror eye-to-eye when that person is faced with another face, a face not our own? We lie.

To walk into our world every day and face people with that other face is tantamount to outright deception, for we exhibit someone we are not - not really anyway. And that’s a lie.

So that when we pretend we are married, when in fact the marriage is dead, we lie, regardless of the legality of it. When we go along with a doctrine or practice in the ‘church’ for the sake of bandwagoning, going-along and not causing ripples or earthquakes or whatever while we are convinced that Scripture teaches otherwise, we lie, for if what we do is not done in faith, it’s a lie. When we vote for this one or that one because there is pressure on us to vote that way and not because that’s the vote we feel within ourselves needs to be cast, we lie.

When we try to convince ourselves that we are ‘ok’ with the lie, the façade, we lie to ourselves.

Integrity is everything. If the world decides to walk a road that goes against the principles I uphold as a person, or the values I esteem as a follower of Jesus, I should be looking for a different pair of shoes, taking a different trail, even if I walk alone.

Integrity is everything. It smells like being true to who you are, being real. The same person I am today at work should be the same person I am tonight at the party, or tomorrow at church, or in my home among my family. Same person wherever and whenever you meet me. I knew someone like that once, and his memory floods my soul.

Jesus was defined by his divine humanity. What defines you and I? Is it the people we hang with, the clique, the morning coffee group, the church we ‘go to’, the political label? Insomuch as I am defined by Jesus, aspire to his calling, his teaching, his example .. there I am real. 

I concern myself a little with the politics, a little. I more concern myself with being a Jesus-example to the ones I meet, helping the hurting, loving my neighbor as I love myself, doing to the ‘other’ as I want people to do to me; with breaking down the walls that separate me from my human neighbours – walls of prejudice towards colour, walls of class, walls of wealth, walls of education, walls of nationality, walls of denomination, walls walls walls … I am not often successful in this, but I'm trying.

When I learn to disconnect with the Earthly ‘issues’, to reconnect with the Heavenly priorities, to put wealth and career and power-plays and politics on the back burner, and to move the kingdom pot to the front burner, then I am moving Kingdomward and becoming the Jesus-person I aspire to be, and in that I confirm my integrity.

Integrity is everything.

When you (I) vote, vote with Jesus in mind. When you (I) speak, speak with Jesus in mind. When you work … , when you think … , when you give … , when you look in the mirror… … … …

Anything else is a lie.

shalom