Judging a Person By the Content of His Circumstances

Suggested Reading: Job 42:1-6

Human beings have always had a tendency to judge people based on their circumstances. We see a homeless person under a bridge, and we wonder how lazy or crazy he had to be to wind up there. We see a corporate executive who brings home a seven-figure salary, and we wonder who he stepped on to get there. We see a person whose spouse just left them, and we wonder what they did to drive their spouse away. Hundreds of other examples exist. Every day, we engage in this behavior, judging people from a very superficial look at their circumstances. Even the wisest and godliest among us do it. And then we complain about it when we are on the receiving end of that judgment.

The Book of Job is a very long, detailed account of how Job was judged in just that way. God allowed Job to lose everything in a single day but never revealed the reasons for the loss to the people involved. Job lost his fortune and his family in one swift stroke and then lost his health as well. The only thing that Job retained was a wife, who told him to curse God and die, and three friends. These three friends, very admirably, sat silently with Job for three days while he mourned the death and devastation that had struck him. But then they spoke up, urging Job to confess whatever great sin he had committed that forced God to take everything away. To the reader, of course, the great irony is that Job was struck with devastation not because Job was a great sinner but because Job was so faithful to God.  But for 34 chapters, Job's friends accuse Job of sin while Job maintains his innocence and pleads for God to reveal his reasons for such destruction.

The most powerful part of the story for me, is the last five chapters when God responds, first, to Job and then to Job's friends. God spends four chapters pointing out a human being's inability to comprehend the ways of God while never giving Job answers for why he was made to suffer. The response, though, is enough for Job. The very fact that God was speaking to Job was enough, and the experience allowed Job to experience God in a new way. "I had heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes" (Job 42:5, NLT).  But then God turns to Job's judgmental friends and expresses his anger at them for their assumptions and their lies, insisting that they will only be acceptable to God once Job prays and sacrifices on their behalf.

We know the rest of the story. Job's fortune and family again grow, and he ends up with twice as much as he had before.  But the lessons of the story are clear. 1) You never know why God allows you to go through terrible hardship; sometimes, God allows it because you are righteous, not because you are sinful. And 2) never judge someone based on their circumstances. We can only tell so much about a person by looking at their circumstances. Sometimes, people are directly responsible for their circumstances, and other times, they have no control over them, and only occasionally do we know which is which.  

So the next time you see someone's circumstances (even your own) and begin to make assumptions about them, stop. Don't judge based on circumstances. Look at a person's character and deeds and maintain your own integrity. In the end, God and God alone can judge a person. Don't try to take God's place.

I WIll If They Will...

Suggested Reading: Colossians 3:15-25

As a child, there were times during the summer when my brother, sister and I were all out of school and we would be at home by ourselves while our parents were at work. Normally, mom would leave us a list of chores that had to be done by the time she got home.  Over the first couple weeks of the summer, we would get in trouble a lot for neglecting those chores. When grilled about why we weren't doing our chores, it was not uncommon to hear, "Well, they weren't doing their chores!" Somehow, especially as kids, we get the idea that we should only have to do what's right if everyone else is doing what's right.  After all, if we are the only ones following the rules, well…that's just not fair.

I think most of us, as adults,  know that we are supposed to do what's right regardless of whether someone else is doing it or not, but there are always exceptions. In fact, through the years, there are two particular passages of scripture that I often hear people excuse themselves from obeying because other people are not doing what they are supposed to do. Those passages? Colossians 3:18-25 and Ephesians 5:20-6:9, and they both basically say the same things.

"Wives respect your husbands."

"Husbands, love your wives."

"Children, obey your parents."

"Parents, don't exasperate your children."

"Slaves/servants, obey your masters and work for them like you are working for the Lord."

"Masters, treat your slaves/servants fairly and pay them what they deserve."

When there are problems in these three different relational areas, almost always, people are not abiding by these instructions. Wives excuse themselves by saying that their husbands aren't being the men they need to be and loving them like they should. Husbands excuse themselves by saying they aren't getting the respect they deserve from their wives. Children excuse themselves by saying their parents don't understand and expect too much from them. Parents excuse themselves by saying that their children just don't listen. Employees say that their bosses simply don't pay them enough and bosses say that they have to be harsh with their employees because they are just lazy and it's the only way to get anything out of them.  All the way around the circle, we all excuse ourselves from following these instructions, and it is always the other party's fault.

But these instructions were not given with the caveat that we only have to obey if everybody else is acting like they should. And, logically, if we all wait for everybody else to start acting right, no one never will. But sometimes, when we treat people like we should, we set off a chain reaction of right living. When wives respect their husbands, whether they deserve it or not, husbands often respond by demonstrating love for their wives in more palpable ways. Bosses who treat their employees with respect, even when administering necessary discipline, eventually end up receiving respect. Parents who stop exasperating their children begin finding their children more cooperative. And the reverse of these is typically true as well.`

The way we live is contagious, for good or for ill. If we treat people the way we should, people respond to that. And when they don't, we get to stand before God with a clear conscience that we have done everything we could. Let's not wait for someone else to treat us right before we do what is right. Let the chain-reaction of right living begin with us. 

Integrity is Like a Nice, Juicy Steak

Suggested Reading: Psalm 101

A few years ago I was introduced to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. I had wandered in with a group of friends as we were visiting Washington D.C., and I was completely unprepared for the experience. Under most circumstances, I have a hard time justifying paying $20 for a steak and Ruth's Chris's steaks started at $45 each. So I was very skeptical about dishing out that much money. But this steak came out piping hot, bubbling in butter, and extremely tender. As the meal ended, I gladly dished out more than I'd ever paid for a single meal in my life and began plotting how to return. When I got home and my wife wanted to go to a local restaurant where I normally ate steak, I discovered that the old steak just wasn't any good anymore, after having Ruth's Chris's steak.  I had been ruined for steak. But as the months progressed and I continued to order steaks knowing they weren't going to be as good, my distaste for them slowly lessened. Eventually, I found normal steaks to be edible and even began to enjoy them again.

Believe it or not, integrity is a lot like my taste for steak. And the psalmist expressed that sentiment when he wrote, I will pay attention to the way of integrity. When will You come to me? I will live with a heart of integrity in my house. I will not set anything worthless before my eyes. (Psalm 101:2-3, HCSB). Desiring a life of integrity, the psalmist vowed not to put worthless things before his eyes because he knew that the more you expose yourself to something undesirable, the less objectionable it becomes. Just like those inferior steaks, which were horrible compared to my Ruth's Chris experience, slowly became, first, palatable and, then, enjoyable, as I continued to expose myself to them (and slowly forgot the better experience), the more we expose ourselves to objectionable and sinful behaviors, the more palatable and, eventually, enjoyable they will become to us.

The more we read books that describe romances that cross the moral lines, the more palatable and desirable they will become. The more we watch television shows where sinful behavior is viewed as funny, the less objectionable and the more acceptable it becomes. The more movies we watch where barbaric behavior is portrayed, the less our guard is raised when we observe or experience it in real life. 

Integrity is not simply a matter of behavior, but it is influenced by the things to which we choose to expose ourselves. In many ways, integrity begins with the eyes. What will we choose to see? What kinds of behaviors and attitudes will we choose to entertain us? Jesus warned us, "If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell" (Matthew 5:29, HCSB). In other words, if the things you see lead you into sin, stop looking at them. And if it takes getting rid of your eyes, then so be it. Wouldn't it be easier for most of us if we simply chose not to look?

Moral and Ethical Subroutines

Suggested Reading: 1 Samuel 28:3-18

In the movie Star Trek: Insurrection, there is a very interesting contrast between one of the Enterprise crew members and a Starfleet Admiral. Data, the android second officer of the Enterprise is injured and his moral and ethical subroutines kick-in. In essence, these subroutines cause Data to have a hyper-sensitivity to right and wrong so that no one can take advantage of him in his injured state. Another crew member described his condition as, in essence, being able only to act on the difference between right and wrong. Data is foiled against a Starfleet Admiral who, because he thinks it is necessary for the survival of the Federation, violates the Federation's most sacred law. I don't know that the writers set up this comparison on purpose but they effectively posed the question, "When circumstances get tough, do you abandon your morals for the sake of survival or cling to them even more?"

Toward the end of 1 Samuel, we see a similar choice made by King Saul. Saul and the prophet Samuel have not gotten along well since early in the king's reign. Now Samuel has died and the king is facing a significant battle against the Philistines and is terrified at his prospects. In the middle of the story, the narrator informs us that Saul had gotten rid of all of the mediums and spiritists in the land. Now, whatever Saul's reasons were for doing so, removing those who practiced the occult from the land  was the right thing to do according to the law of Moses. But facing this important battle against the Philistines, Saul's nerves are rattled. Saul has tried consulting the Lord about what to do but God is not answering. Even with Samuel's hostility toward the king, Saul would gladly have consulted with Samuel but the prophet is dead. So, Saul decides he has only one option: Saul disguises himself and tracks down a medium so that she can speak to Samuel in the grave and ask the prophet what to do. When Samuel actually appears, Saul complains, "The Philistines are fighting against me and God has turned away from me. He doesn't answer me anymore, either through the prophets or in dreams. So I've called on you to tell me what I should do" (1 Samuel 28:15, HCSB). Samuel essentially responds by asking what Saul expects Samuel to do if God has abandoned him.

Saul's reign was never one marked by righteousness. In many ways, removing the mediums and spiritists from the land was the moral highlight of Saul's reign. But when things got tough, Saul abandoned the single moral achievement of his reign and turned to the very occult he tried to remove from the land.  Saul did not lose his kingship because of this decision but this kind of decision reinforced the reasons for why God had already chosen to remove Saul as king.

When things get tough in our own lives, how often does doing the right thing become a casualty of survival? Money is tight at home and so we hold back our tithe or decide its ok to "borrow" something from the office or "modify" our tax return. We realize that a personal mistake could harm our relationship with our spouse or with our parents so we choose to lie and hide the truth rather than deal with it. We discover we simply don't have enough time to do all the things we need to so we steal time from our family, hoping that they will forgive us down the road. We fear that our status at the workplace may suffer if people find out about our faith, so we choose not to tell people about the hope that we have in Christ. When times get tough, doing the right thing gets tossed out the window.

What tough decisions are you facing today? Are you considering abandoning what is right because you are more likely to get through your circumstances without suffering? Are you considering cheating, just this once, because you know that doing the right thing might cost you or make things very uncomfortable for you? Character isn't measured by how often we do the right thing, but by how often we do the right thing when it might hurt us to do so.

When Saul got scared, he abandoned what was right and he died anyway. What about you? When things get tough, will you compromise, hoping it will make things better? Or will you choose to do the right thing and trust God with the consequences?  When circumstances scare you, will you abandon biblical morals for the sake of survival or cling to them even more?

Impressing Teenage Boys With My Girl Watching Skills

Suggested Reading: Proverbs 7:6-23

When I was in high school, our youth group went to Six Flags Over Texas for the day. When we were ready for lunch, I found myself standing in line with a couple of other teenage boys waiting to order. As we were slowly moving through the line, one of my friends suddenly muttered in a very excited voice, "Wow, she's hot!" The other guys in the line with me immediately turned to stare at the beautiful girl in line several feet behind us but I refused to turn. A couple of the guys urged me, "You've got to look at this girl! She's gorgeous!" I answered that I would but that I refused to turn and stare like a gawking bird and make a fool of myself. The guys described her to me and after a minute or so I twisted like I was stretching one way and then the other, getting a good look at the girl as I did. The other boys in line with me were impressed by the move and began practicing the move themselves as the day went on. I used to be real impressed with myself, too, until I realized that I didn't have a problem with staring just like everybody else. I just had a problem getting caught.

The author of Proverbs struck on the core of this human tendency in a scene where an adulterous woman attempted to seduce a young man walking past her house. The woman said, "Come, let’s drink deeply of lovemaking until morning. Let’s feast on each other’s love! My husband isn’t home; he went on a long journey. He took a bag of money with him and will come home at the time of the full moon” (Proverbs 7:18-20, HCSB). Notice, that the adulterous woman's main selling point is that her husband will be gone for a long time and they won't get caught.

While the author of the proverb was specifically warning about the dangers and temptations of adultery, the seduction method is something we experience in nearly all areas of life. The belief that we won't get caught, that no one will know, can be a strong motivator to do something we know is wrong but we really want to do anyway. Rarely do men look at pornography when their wives are sitting next to them but they watch it when they think they won't get caught. Employees skim a little off the slush fund at work because no one keeps up with exactly how much is in there and they will never get caught. Those little indiscretions on business trips happen because there is no one who will report back to our spouse that we were unfaithful. Or we run that stop sign because no one is around to see us or give us a ticket.

The knowledge that we won't get caught emboldens us to do what we want when, at any other time, we would resist temptation. Las Vegas's "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" motto is built on this foundation. But the definition of sin doesn't change because no one is watching. It's still called cheating even when you don't get caught, and you're still staring, even if no one can tell that you are. Rather than pushing the line and getting away with what we can, we ought to be even more careful with our integrity when no one is watching.

God has called us to live lives of holiness. Are we living with integrity or just trying not to get caught?

Calling the Cavalry From a Bucket Seat Airplane

Suggested Reading: Ezra 8:21-32 (Ezra is speaking)

My first experience in an airplane was also my first experience actually piloting an airplane. I was serving as a summer youth minister and, on my first day, the pastor of the church drove me around town to meet everybody. One of the first houses where we stopped belonged to an old test-pilot who had built his own two-seater airplane in his garage. The best way of describing this little plane is to say it was two bucket seats with wings. No walls or doors. No seat belts. Just bucket seats, controls and wings. The plane was controlled by a single steering column between the two seats and a peddle in front of either seat that served as the throttle. The old test pilot offered to take me up and I had a hard time refusing. Once we were in the air (with no seat belts, remember) he asked me if I wanted to fly the plane. "It's so easy anybody can do it!" he said. Apparently, he believed it because a second later he had released the steering column and I had to grab it before the plane started descending. He believed his plane was easy to fly and he backed it up by giving me control.

Unlike that old test pilot, there is sometimes a disconnect between what we say we believe and how we behave. Ezra, an Old Testament scribe who led some of the Israelites back to Jerusalem and helped rebuild the temple, felt the tension of this disconnect very keenly. He had asked the King for permission to return to Israel and permission had been granted. But when it came time to start traveling hundreds of miles across treacherous and hostile terrain, Ezra wanted to ask for a regiment of cavalry to escort them, but then decided not to. Instead, Ezra said, I proclaimed a fast by the Ahava River, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask Him for a safe journey for us, our children, and all our possessions. I did this because I was ashamed to ask the king for infantry and cavalry to protect us from enemies during the journey, since we had told him, “The hand of our God is gracious to all who seek Him, but His great anger is against all who abandon Him” (Ezra 8:21-22, HCSB). While Ezra had boasted that God would protect them, he still wanted the cavalry. But when he thought about it, he realized that asking for the cavalry would undermine the confidence he had expressed in God and would damage his witness for God in the king's eyes. So instead of asking for the cavalry, he led his people in prayer.

Frequently we will encounter situations where the things we claim to believe will be tested. We might tell someone that God can provide for all of our needs, only to find ourselves in financial difficulties where people watch us to see if we really believe God will provide. We might claim that God blesses marriages where people choose to love each other and remain faithful through difficult situations just to experience some marital difficulty coupled with the opportunity to cheat. Or we might mention to someone that God loves us even when tragedy strikes and then find out that we have cancer.

Saying we believe something is much easier than acting like we believe it. But when faced with the choice, how will our behavior affect our witness? Will the people watching us discover how great God is or decide we're lying to ourselves? Like Ezra, are we ashamed at the thought of chickening out and acting contrary to our beliefs no matter how frightened we are, or will we allow our weakness and fear to cheat people out of a chance to see God's greatness?

Living out what we say we believe isn't simply a matter of personal maturity but a chance for God to reveal himself through us.

Junior High Pranksters and Suffering Heroes

Suggested Reading: Genesis 39:7-23

When I was in junior high, our theater teacher invited the cast of the most recent play over to his house for a cast party. Several of us were standing around in the front yard talking when a couple of guys decided it would be fun if they moved the teacher's car down the street. I warned them not to, told them it was stupid and, even once they had the door open and were pushing it down the block, I was urging them to put it back before something unexpected happened. Sure enough, a few moments later they realized that the steering wheel was locked, the car was picking up speed. And the open door was heading right for a massive brick mailbox. All the pranksters panicked.

I ran for the car, reached it right before it hit the mail box, stuck a foot in and pressed the break, and got pinned between the door and the brick mailbox. I managed to save the door but it did get a little bent. But even though I had argued against moving the car and had managed to keep the door from being completely popped off when the pranksters themselves panicked, the following week I got a bill in the mail for damages to the car. It didn't seem right. I could have walked away when the pranksters began, instead of trying to talk them out of it. I could have gone to the back yard when the car started picking up speed instead of saving it. In either case I would have avoided the bill in the mail. But for doing what seemed to a junior high kid to be the right thing I ended up getting lumped in with the bad guys.

Joseph knew even more about that than I did. When Potiphar's wife propositioned him, Joseph did the right thing. When she let all the servants have the day off so she could seduce Joseph in secret, Joseph ran away so fast that he left his cloak in the grasping hands of the temptress. She put Joseph’s garment beside her until his master came home. Then she told him the same story: “The Hebrew slave you brought to us came to make a fool of me, but when I screamed for help, he left his garment with me and ran outside.” (Genesis 39:16-18, HCSB). As a result, Joseph ended up in prison, forgotten for years. The frustrating thing for Joseph must have been knowing that if he had become her lover she probably would have protected him instead of turning on him.  But Joseph did the right thing and he suffered for it.

We live in a fallen, sinful world where it doesn't always pay to do the right thing, at least at the time. Doing the right thing means that we will sometimes be taken advantage of, be fought against with nasty, vicious attacks, and suffer when we could easily have walked away and remained unscathed. We must be under no illusions that doing the right thing will make our lives easier or safer. If we only choose to do the right thing because it will make our lives easier, our integrity will falter when life gets tough. We must be committed to doing the right thing whether it is safe or not, whether we prosper or suffer for it. Our motivation for doing the right thing is pleasing God, maintaining our relationship with God, and demonstrating we are children of God. Any motivation based on how things work out for us will eventually cause us to walk away from our integrity when we should be standing firm.

Typhoons and Temptresses

Suggested Reading: Genesis 39:1-10

In Karate Kid, Part II, Daniel and Mr. Miyagi go to Okinawa to visit Mr. Miyagi's dying father. Almost immediately upon arriving they both find themselves confronted by angry rivals seeking to demonstrate how much better they are than the heroes of the movie. Near the climax of the film, in the middle of a typhoon, Daniel's rival, Chozen, refuses to go help a little girl caught in the storm. Instead, Daniel has to save her. Upon seeing Chozen's cowardice and his refusal to help the little girl, his mentor Sato tells him, "Now, to me, you are dead." Chozen had wronged the little girl and her family by not helping but, worse, he had dishonored Sato by being a coward. Sato took Chozen's failure to help the little girl as a sin against himself.

As odd as that interchange may seem to most Americans, a similar kind of honor can been seen throughout scripture. In Genesis 39, Joseph, whose brothers had sold him into slavery, had worked his way up through the ranks at his owner's home and Potiphar had placed him in charge of everything. Potiphar's wife took notice of Joseph and repeatedly tried to seduce him. Joseph's response to her is found in Genesis 39:8-9: Look, my master does not concern himself with anything in his house, and he has put all that he owns under my authority. No one in this house is greater than I am. He was withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. So how could I do such a great evil and sin against God? (HCSB).

For Joseph, while sleeping with his master's wife would be wrong because of his relationship with her husband, Joseph spoke of the situation as a sin against God, not his master. Joseph would not have denied that sleeping with this woman was a sin against her husband, but he understood something deeper and more important: maintaining our integrity must be seen first, and foremost, in terms of our relationship with God.  If we are only concerned about not hurting people or not sinning against people, there may be times we think we can get away with something because no one will never find out. We can cheat on our spouse on a business trip because we are 300 miles away and she will never know. We can fudge our mileage when listing our tax deductions because no one will be able to prove us wrong. But that thinking only works if our focus is on the people involved. When we turn to consider God, who holds us accountable whether people know or not, who sees every hidden act and every desire of our hearts, we must view our behavior in a different light.

While it is important that we avoid hurting people and that we honor people's trust, it is more important that we live a life of integrity before God. We must remember that we ultimately reflect the One who sees everything we do and think, even if no one else ever knows. Does what you do in secret bring God shame or reflect his glory?

Being a Redheaded Christian

Suggested Reading: John 13:31-38

If you ever see me or my wife in public with our kids it is impossible to not know who our children belong to. Both of the kids have the same bright red hair as my wife and the same facial structure that runs on my side of the family. Even if they wanted to, my children could not deny who they belong to. When we go out to eat with large groups, it is very easy for our waiter or waitress to know exactly who belongs on our check.

In a similar way, the people we interact with should experience the same kind of certainty that we belong to Jesus. But how, exactly, does that work? It's not as if people can look at us, like they look at my children, and notice the physical resemblance. So what is it that people can see that lets them know we belong to Jesus. I'm sure we could come up with lists of things: compassion, caring for the poor, righteous living, honesty, integrity, loving our neighbor as ourselves. All of those things are important, of course, and we should be characterized by those things. But none of them are the thing that causes people to recognize our affiliation with Jesus when they see them.

In John 13, immediately after Jesus' last supper with the disciples before his crucifixion and after Judas had left to betray him, Jesus told the disciples, "I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another" (John 13:34-35, HCSB). According to Jesus' words here, there are two important things necessary for people to recognize that we belong to Jesus. First, they must see us, as believers, loving one another. Of all the things that we can do, Jesus pointed to this one thing as the primary marker that would let everyone know we belong to him. Not being loving in general. Not even loving our neighbors as ourselves. Not being non-judgmental. But loving each other - our fellow believers. Is it any wonder that the world doesn't believe we belong to a resurrected Lord when we are often better known for fighting each other and arguing with each other than for loving each other?

But the second thing Jesus's words require if people are to recognize that we belong to him is that people must see us together. We cannot be seen to love each other if we are not seen with each other. More than that, we cannot be seen to love each other if we are not seen to love being with each other. Do you really believe that people love each other when they never want to be around each other?  Is it even possible to love someone if you are never together? At least in a biblical, unconditional, love-is-a-choice-not-just-a-feeling kind of way?

Do you want to convince the people in your school or office or neighborhood that Jesus is real and that you belong to him? Let them see you with other believers, actively loving each other the way that Jesus loved us. By this all people will know  that we belong to him.

Knowing You're About to Be Eaten

Suggested Reading: Proverbs 30:15-20

In the classic family movie, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, the climax of the movie occurs in a bowl of cereal. The kids, who had been shrunk and then accidentally tossed out with the garbage, have managed to work their way all the way back to the house and one boy, helped out by the family dog, somehow ends up in the father's cereal bowl. The boy didn't mean to end up in the father's cereal, but he did. So he, and all the other shrunken kids, begin yelling and screaming, trying to get their subjectively giant father figure to notice them, while the boy simultaneously tries to avoid getting scooped up by the spoon.  Finally, as the boy is in the spoon headed toward dad's mouth, the dog bites dad in the leg, saving the kid from being consumed, and allowing them all to be seen and restored to normal size.

I was reminded of that movie while reading Proverbs 30:20, "An adulterous woman consumes a man, then wipes her mouth and says, "What's wrong with that?"" (NLT). Certainly, the adulterous woman is more aware of what she is doing than Rick Moranis was when he nearly consumed his movie son, but in both cases, the person being consumed should be perfectly aware of what is going on.

Often, we want to think of infidelity much like a frog in a pot of boiling water, slowly getting in deeper and deeper without realizing what is going on. But we all know that is not true. All along the way in those illicit relationships there are warnings and red flags - those little thoughts that remind us we shouldn't be talking about such personal things with this particular person, the twinge of guilt when we imagine ourselves in a situation we know should never exist, the justification that we deserve a little bit of happiness because we simply aren't getting it at home, the attempt to assure ourselves that no one ever has to know. All of those little things, and lots of others, serve as warnings that we are about to be consumed by something that will destroy us.

The choice we face is not whether or not to finally give in to temptation and be consumed but whether or not to walk away when that first warning sign appears. When we see ourselves driving over a cliff, we cannot wait until we reach the ledge to hit the breaks. We know that certain activities will consume us. We know that. And we normally know when we are slipping into that behavior. The adulterous woman (or man) may consume us, but it is entirely our own fault if we let it happen.

What sinful activity are you inching towards? What red flags are you ignoring?  Are you willing to do what you have to to avoid being consumed or can you just not bear to give up your sIn? 

Disney Models of Comical Integrity

Suggested Reading: Romans 3:1-8

When she was younger, one of my daughter's favorite Disney shows was Austin & Ally. In one episode, a mysterious blogger was taking pictures and videos of Austin and misrepresenting them on her website in order to destroy Austin's singing career. To discover the blogger's identity, they came up with a plan to promise, via email, embarrassing pictures of Austin and then wait to see who picked them up.  But instead of delivering blank pieces of paper like they had planned, Austin's friend actually delivered embarrassing pictures. When Austin and Ally got mad he responded, "I know she is going to misuse them but I made a promise and I am a man of my word!"

Their friend's "mistake" was meant to be comical but in many ways it is a great illustration of God's faithfulness. Romans 3:3-4 reads, "What if some were unfaithful? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness? Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar” (NIV).

We live in a world where it is often acceptable to go back on our word if another party does not live up to an agreement, where we are only expected to treat well those people who treat us well, and where another person's bad behavior is often used as an acceptable reason for us to behave badly. But to quote a very old maxim, "two wrongs don't make a right." Our good behavior or personal faithfulness should not be dependent on another person's behavior. We should be mature regardless of whether other parties are also being mature. We should keep our word regardless of whether other people keep their word. And we should strive to be faithful in every circumstance because God is faithful to us in every circumstance regardless of our own faithfulness.

Are you being tempted to go back on your word because someone else is behaving poorly? Are you thinking about getting back at someone who hasn't been faithful by being unfaithful yourself? Have you decided that someone else's bad behavior requires you to behave badly in order to set things right? Don't let someone else determine your integrity. Be faithful regardless, because God is always faithful to you.