The online dictionary defines it as:
- 1. adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.
2. the state of being whole, entire, or undiminished.
to preserve the integrity of the empire. - 3. a sound, unimpaired, or perfect condition.
the integrity of a ship’s hull.
In the church we might remind ourselves that we have an audience of One (Colossians 3:23) for Whom we ultimately do all of our work. But it wasn’t that long ago that integrity was even part of our culture.
I’ve told the story before of my neighbor, Mr. Andorf, who fixed my wagon when I was a boy. He welded the pull-bar back on my Red Ryder wagon. I remember watching him using his grinder to smooth out the weld on the under-side and asking why he bothered given that nobody would ever know? His answer has stayed with me for over 50 years, “Scotty, every time I see you pulling your wagon, I’d know that I left a dirty weld on the under-side.” That, beloved, is integrity. I tell you that because I ran across a similar story today.
Oscar Hammerstein II observed that the top of the Statue of Liberty’s head was sculpted with painstaking detail, even though the artist, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, must have believed it would never be seen by human eyes.
Hammerstein wrote about this in his book, Lyrics. His observation came after seeing a photograph of the statue taken from a helicopter for the New York Herald Tribune Sunday magazine.
Hammerstein’s point was that Bartholdi, as a true artist, finished his work perfectly, even in places that were not intended for public view. He used this as an inspiring metaphor for integrity in one’s own work, stating, “You never know when a helicopter, or some other instrument not at the moment invented, may come along and find you out”.
Both of these stories point to an internal integrity, and perhaps we should care enough about ourselves to be this whole as we interact with the world. But for us it’s exponentially more important because we are accountable not to ourselves but to the Holy God that made us and then bought us back!
Pastor Scott – “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men” Colossians 3:23
Grace Notes 