In my integrity you uphold me and set me in your presence forever. – Psalm 41:12 (NIV)
What does it mean to have integrity? Do you have integrity? Have you met anyone with good character? How has meeting such people changed your life? Who is watching you as you go about your life? Are you a good example? How does integrity put you in the presence of God forever?
The following story came from Vanderbilt Today (Summer-Fall 1999) in an article entitled, “The Nature of Virtue,” by Gaynelle Doll.
My alma mater has an honor code that is respected throughout the university. Freshmen pledge to do their own academic work with integrity and to report those who do not to the student-run honor council.
Student signatures remain on display in the lobby of the Sarratt Student Center throughout their four years at the university. Alongside the signatures is a statement of the honor code as well as the words of the man for whom the building is named. Madison Sarratt, longtime dean of men at Vanderbilt University and a teacher in the mathematics department, died in 1978. He wrote, “Today I am going to give you two examinations, one in trigonometry and one in honesty. I hope you will pass them both, but if you must fail one, let it be trigonometry, for there are many good [people] in this world today who cannot pass an examination in trigonometry, but there are no good [people] in the world who cannot pass an examination in honesty.”
Sarratt’s former students still speak of the effect those words have had on their adult lives.
Almost everything can be taken from us in this world. Our health, our stuff, those we love, our security, and much more can be taken in just a moment. One thing that can never be taken is our character, our integrity, our goodness. We can abandon our integrity and choose an “easier” way, but it is a way that leads away from God. When we keep our integrity in those moments it might seem best to lose it, it is then we are in the presence of God. And that is a good place to be because as John Knox said, “A man with God is always in the majority.”
With hope and joy,
Garrett
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