Would you consider yourself to be a “good person”? Do you think you have Integrity, or do you see many areas where you think you could improve?
In a way, that is a trick question. In truth, there is no one who doesn’t have anything to improve upon in their life. I may be a person of Integrity overall, but part of what that means is that I am always trying to be better than I was yesterday. There are two main traps we can fall into with regard to our own Integrity, and they are both very dangerous.
The first trap is to think that you are perfectly fine the way you are. Integrity isn’t necessary, you think to yourself, or even if it is, I am good enough. I don’t have breaches or cracks in my character; I’m fine just the way I am.
“I don’t have breaches or cracks in my character; I’m fine just the way I am.”
But if we hang on to idea that we are “good enough,” then we stop trying to be better. Unfortunately, life has no cruise control. We are either working toward something, or we are regressing and losing momentum. If you decide that you are good enough and that there is no reason to push forward, you are choosing to let your Integrity suffer. Striving for perfection is the only way to get anywhere close.
The second trap is really the total opposite of the first. It is simply this: If you buy the lie that you cannot change, you never will.
“If you buy the lie that you cannot change, you never will.”
This has been one of the key concepts in our Integrity Project class for years. We all have made mistakes and we all know there is at least one area where we could be living better. We know that we would sleep better at night and have more peace of mind if we had a clear conscience. The problem is, even when we know what in our lives we need to fix, we have no idea how to fix it. After we have it all figured out, we start to hear that small voice inside that says, “You probably couldn’t do it anyway. You know you will never change. You may as well stop trying. You’ll never be worth fixing. You aren’t strong enough. It’s hopeless.”
We have found that almost everyone starts off with one of these two attitudes. They either believe they have nothing to fix in their character, or they believe that there is to much to fix and that they can’t do it. But both of these are lies. The truth is that we all have made mistakes, and really messed up. No one has got it all together, and if they think they do, they are actually even worse off than if they admit their weaknesses. However, if you know you don’t have it together, and you feel so broken that you don’t think there could ever be a way to fix it…That is also not true. There is always hope. There is no one who doesn’t need to work on their Integrity. You are not so broken that you cannot be fixed.
Which of the two traps is more likely to slow you down in your journey to Integrity? Let us know in the comments. Thanks for reading!