“If you don’t have integrity, that’s all that matters. If you do have integrity, that’s all that matters.” Those words by Craig Groeschel in his book, Altar Ego, say it best. In my 34 years of leadership, I can’t think of much anything else that is more important in every single area of life. Integrity or lack of it, will make you or break you.
You don’t have to look very far to find plenty of examples of people who lack integrity: business, sports, politics, clergy and all the rest. Dishonesty is so normal that people are often surprised by honesty.
So if the lack of integrity is obvious, what is true integrity? Here’s a simple definition that Groeschel gives, “Practicing integrity means that your behavior matches your beliefs.” I’ve heard other definitions like, “integrity is who you are when no one is looking.” The bottom line is that your life seamlessly forms a united whole. There’s not a public life and a private life. They match. What you say actually matches what you do. Your lifestyle is integrated.
Just to make sure, personal integrity is not the same thing as your reputation. Your reputation is who other people think you are. Your integrity (or lack of it) is who you really are. Proverbs 11:3 says, “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.” That’s true. We’ve all seen it.
How much is your integrity worth? If you don’t have integrity, you don’t have anything, but if you have integrity, you have everything that matters.
God intended you to be a person of integrity. To do this you must decide what your next step is if you are lacking integrity. What are you going to do to begin fully living your life of integrity? If you are living with integrity, then what are you going to do to maintain it?
QUESTION: What is one thing you practice to maintain integrity? Share it below.
3 responses to Integrity: All That Matters