icPlus Devotional

July 20, 2016

Devotional

Visit any school, any locker room, or any office in America and the odds are high you’ll find the word “integrity” plastered to a wall somewhere. Everyone loves that word—but do we know what it means? The idea behind it speaks to things being integrated or working together. So a person of integrity is one who has all parts of their lives connected with the other parts of their lives. If you think of different hats or buckets like work, family, entertainment; it means they all work together and are never in silos and separated. This might be a troubling thought for us. We like to compartmentalize everything; and in those compartments we morph into someone different than we were in the previous bucket. 

But God calls us to something more beautifully complex. He loves people that take every square-inch of their lives and connects them, keeping Him as the center hub. That’s why God chose Job to be Satan’s punching bag. He was a man of integrity not compartments. He was a man who wouldn’t falter in any one area because every area was supported by it’s peripherals. Job lived life structured more like a spider web than a series of blocks. Everything connected not stacked, because when things are stacked they easily crumble. But spider webs hold up in the face of all kinds of adversity. Even if that adversity is your face when you walk through it! Spider silk at spider-size is stronger than kevlar at our size. 

Integrity is not just a virtue, it’s a stabilizer and defense system. Just look at all Job was able to stand up against given his level of integrity. Every shot Satan took was rendered ineffective as Job kept his family, his work, and his property connected to his center: God.

Scripture

Job 2:1-10

Questions

If you were going to explain integrity to a 2nd-grader, how would you do it?

Why do you suppose God values integrity in us? Why do we value it in others? And why don’t we give it priority in our own lives like we should?

What compartments of your life aren’t integrated with your faith and stand alone? Why do you suppose you have those compartments? What would need to change for you to integrate them?