About Me

I have done a lot of things in my life and have also worked in many different jobs to make a living and to experience life. This blog is just some of my musings, sometimes funny, sometimes inspirational, sometimes sad, sometimes angry, sometimes simple but all the time, it's just me.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Integrity - complete love, complete courage, complete truth.

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
~Buddha

A scoundrel and villain, who goes about with a corrupt mouth,who winks with his eye, signals with his feet and motions with his fingers,who plots evil with deceit in his heart— he always stirs up dissension. Therefore disaster will overtake him in an instant; he will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy.
There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes,a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.
The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes crooked paths will be found out.
The LORD abhors dishonest scales, but accurate weights are his delight. The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.
Proverbs

Integrity is derived from the word integer which basically means whole numbers and not fractions. Integrity as you know is an adherence to moral principles; honesty; the quality of being unimpaired; soundness; unity; wholeness.

How many of us truly have integrity? Nobody will admit that they do not have integrity, that they live a fragmented life.

So let me admit, I do not live a life of integrity, not yet, but I am on the journey and in the process of doing so.

Most of us act one way with friends, another way with your spouse, another way with your parents, another way at work and likely another way at work.

It is not easy to live with integrity many of us would say, it is not easy to be whole and consistent through and through.

But integrity in life will fill life with peace, passion and purpose.

When I was young, we were told many stories and I loved to read Amar Chitra Katha comic books. Among my many readings, I now remember a story about an emperor and seeds.

The emperor who had nobody to take over from him called all the children in his empire and gave them all a seed and said in one year, the child that has taken care of the seed the most will be the next emperor.

All the children were surprised and went about their duties of taking care of the seed, planting it, watering it etc.

One year later, all the children brought back plants, flowers, saplings etc for the emperor but one. The one boy brought back the seed as it was given to him.

Then the emperor went to the boy and declared him the next emperor and told the rest of the crowd that he had given them all boiled seeds that would not grow. While the rest of them tried to grow the seeds and when that failed, replaced the seed with another seed. It was only this boy, who tried and nothing grew, so he took care of the seed and brought it back to the emperor as it was.

That is integrity.

And when you have integrity, the Kingdom of God will await you.

If we want to live live in an undivided, unbroken state of strength and peace, we must be complete, we must work to integrate core values and beliefs into all we do not just parts of what we do.

We have to be true to ourselves and God in every area. We do not need a policy, we just need to do out best everyday as Honest Abe Lincoln would say.

Many of us compartmentalize our lives and we tend to have many super duper excuses for our inconsistencies.

There is this story I heard that a honest man returned about ten thousand dollars he was wrongly given in his take away bag from a restaurant. The money was the to be sent by the manager to the bank next day but in a rush, the doggy bags got mixed up. The manager was relieved when the money was returned. And wanted to call the local press to tell the story but the man refused ~ it was found out later that it was because the "date" that he was on was someone else's wife.

When you play with your natural strengths and compensate for some of our weaknesses, we are true to ourself. Problem is we are always trying to impress others, we trying to do things different, trying to show off.

When we are performing to keep up an image for others, it requires a lot of effort and energy and it will divert us from our passion and God given purpose, it will rob us from our personal peace.

The secret of passion is being true to God's design for us. Rather than impressing someone, we have to influence people.

To influence people, I will need to be real, take of my mask and admit some of my faults and failures.

One lie leads to another and another and soon the lie is so big it s difficult to maintain appearances and there is no truth anymore. At some point, all the lies will escape and the cover is blown and it will wound you and sting others in the process.

When you tell the truth, it should be done lovingly, not undermine or tear down another person. Don't be Simon Cowell. You share the truth not to hurt another person but to build trust level and strength in the relationship.

Lying is the easy route, a selfish convenience and we do it because we don't love enough. Taking the easy road. The more you love, the more you have the courage to tell the truth. And to admit the truth about ourselves, to acknowledged our failures and ask for forgiveness.

Earlier in my journey, I had talked about talking to God, guardians and confessions. Be true to yourself and to God and when you have lied, seek forgiveness. God simply loves us and He will be the source of integrated life that we crave, a life of integrity, the one we are made for.

Take care and be well.  

4 comments:

Alisonswhim said...

Thank you for writing the words I need to read.

Whitesamari said...

Very introspective, a fine article and an excellent read. Well done.

Julieann Martinez Sandoval said...

You are so saying the truth. We do need to be truthful with ourselves and with everyone else at all times. For it is the only way to really be obedient to God for he hates liars. There is one point I do not agree with and that where you stated for me not to believe in a written thing. I am not ashamed to admit that I believe the Bible for it teaches me how I should live my life and It Is the written word of God.

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