I'm very fond of being a member of a team. For years, I enjoyed good success primarily because the Lord allowed me to have great people around me....people on a team with a common goal, a common purpose.
I continue to have a great team that works well together and supports each other.
One of the clichés that is often told is...there is no "I" in "team".
I'm OK with that cliché as there is a lot of truth in that statement, even beyond the obvious.
What is interesting to note (but I'm not ready to create another cliché) is that while there may be no "I" in team, there is an "I" in Integrity.
I guess is it likely just human nature the way we all seem to be drawn to reports of various failures of integrity. Like some irresistible urge, like a moth we are drawn to buildings on fire and slow down to see what the ambulance is doing by the side of the highway. We pause as we are flipping through various news stories to read about embezzlement, fraud, illicit affairs, illegal drug use, and all other sordid human failures..... and all because of the "I" in the integrity failure.
Integrity for an organization or system or bridge is great. Actually pretty expected these days.
Integrity for the person...that is another matter.
And yet, it needs to start with the "I". I need to have integrity. I need to take seriously what the Bible says about treating people fairly and honestly. That verse in Proverbs about honest scales and balances (like the picture I used at the beginning of the blog) has been updated in the modern-language Message Bible and says, "God cares about honesty in the workplace; your business is His business." (Prov. 16:11)
We are also told that Integrity is more valuable than riches (Proverbs 28:6) and unfortunately, I can introduce you to a few men that didn't understand the "I" in this instruction. They lost their business, their families, their children because they didn't understand their personal roll in maintaining integrity.
You can either have integrity or you can lack integrity. It becomes apparent to most of us that it's difficult to have just a "little" integrity. People rarely only cheat on their taxes (it started with tests in school), only cheat on one wife (that's why one divorce is often followed by another), only lie a little (just ask their customers) and rarely were only speeding the one time they were stopped by the police.
Integrity really starts with the "I" and that's no cliché.
