I recently read about the Integrity League. Sounds impressive, no?! It’s really just a bunch of guys who get together at lunchtime to play basketball. They call fouls on themselves, attempt to avoid angry outbursts, and simply try to keep everything fair and enjoyable. They are competitive and they don’t like to lose—but they all agree that integrity and honesty should control the atmosphere.
Integrity. The rabbis learn about the importance of this trait in this week’s Torah portion. God commands the Jewish people to build a sanctuary with all its accoutrements so that the Holy One would dwell amongst them. When it came time to construct the Ark, it had to be fashioned with pure gold…inside and out. Even if no human being ever sees the inside of the Ark, it must nevertheless be pure. From this the rabbis learned that we should strive to be the same golden person in private and in public. In other words we should be people of integrity and when we are, we sanctify God’s name.
Throughout the rest of our Bible, God has given us clear reasons to “walk in . . . integrity” (Ps. 26:11). A person who has integrity has the security of a quiet life unknown to the one who “perverts his ways” (Prov. 10:9). And the one who practices integrity will be given guidance and clear direction (Prov. 11:3).
Why
should we care about life’s “Integrity League”? When we walk with integrity,
God promises to dwell amongst us. I can
think of no better company.
No comments:
Post a Comment