Connor Halsa went out walleye fishing with his dad when he felt a tug on his line. It felt like a decent catch and he reeled it in.
Instead of a walleye, he caught a wallet. Yup, a brown billfold with a business card in it and $2,000 cash. All of it quite soggy after dropping into the depths of Lake of the Woods in northern Minnesota.
Have you ever found $2,000? Maybe it’s more common to find $20 on the floor near a grocery store self-checkout, or maybe find a $100 bill in the parking lot. Or you find a stranger in trouble, a friend who is causing trouble for someone else, or maybe you got in trouble yourself but don’t want others to know.
“The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity” (Proverbs 11:3).
In a recent team-building activity, our staff talked about integrity. A well known definition of integrity is “doing what is right when nobody is looking.” We shared examples of integrity, and the lack of integrity. It hit home in some inspiring and convicting ways.
Think for a minute about the integrity of God. He is accountable to nobody except himself. He can do what he wants, when he wants, how he wants, and not get in any trouble.
Yet God’s integrity makes him perfectly faithful. He promises, “By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked” (Isaiah 45:23). God is always faithful without misstepping in any way.
Even when it cost him pain and sacrifice. Even when it makes things messy. Even when it’s difficult. Even when people will make false assumptions or misuse his kindness.
Connor decided to call the number on the soaked card and reached Jim Denny, 600 miles away in Iowa! Jim lost the wallet on a fishing retreat over a year earlier. He traveled all the way to Connor’s home to reunite with the wallet and the cash. Then he offered some of it to Connor as a reward.
The teen refused any amount of the cash inside, saying it was what any decent person would do.
How can you be the best version of integrity today, that a God of integrity has made you to be?
PRAYER: God of integrity and faithfulness, you make big promises, lots of promises, and keep them all, every time. Help me be the best version of integrity in my life today, that your faithful grace has made me to be. Amen.
DIG DEEPER: Check out the news story here. Write down on a post-it note one decision or action of integrity you make today. Put it on the fridge. Tell someone about it in your end-of-day conversation time. How hard was it? What ways did your faith help?
