I Always Feel Like Someone is Watching Me

            A story I’ve told my kids is one told by General Colin Powell. As a young man, Powell had a job mopping the floors at a soft-drink bottling plant near his home. A story told to him served as his motivation:

            There were once three ditch diggers. The first rested on his shovel and bragged about one day owning the company. The second whined about the long hours and low pay. The last digger kept right on digging.

            The years passed, and the first digger could be still found leaning on his shovel. The second digger had retired: receiving a disability settlement for a fake injury. Meanwhile, the third digger… owned the company.

            Powell wrote, "The moral is no matter what you do, someone is always watching. So I set out to be the best mop wielder there ever was. One day someone let 50 cases of cola crash to the concrete, and brown sticky foam cascaded across the floor. It was almost more than I could bear. But I kept mopping, right to left, left to right. At summer's end, the foreman said, ‘You mop floors pretty good.’ The next summer, he had me filling bottles. The third summer, I was deputy foreman. As I have learned, someone is always watching.”

            The Apostle Paul, in Eph. 6:4-8, emphasizes that someone is always watching as well: God.

Walking the Talk

            In youth minister’s Tony Tucker’s bulletin article, I read that the Christian band dc Talk wrote the following lyrics in one of their songs, “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips often walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

            Wow! What a challenge to live lives consistent with the teachings of Jesus.

            The Apostle Paul talked about the same challenge when he wrote to the Thessalonians that Christians should embody the gospel they proclaim. Easier said than done!

The Redheaded Salesperson

            One definition of integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching. A parable, perhaps a true story, tells of a company that had advertised for a salesperson. They received this reply:

            I am at present selling furniture at the address below. You may judge my sales ability if you will stop in to see me at any time, pretending that you are interested in buying furniture.

            When you come in you can identify me by my red hair. And I will have no way of identifying you.

            Such salesmanship as I exhibit during your visit, therefore, will be no more than my usual workday approach, and not a special effort to impress a prospective employer.

            Hundreds applied for that job; the redheaded furniture salesperson won it. This makes me think of what Paul wrote to the Colossians, Work from the heart for your real Master, for God, confident that you'll get paid in full when you come into your inheritance (Col. 3:23.) THE MESSAGE

           

Source: Bits & Pieces, March 3, 1994

“Tell Him I’m Out”

            I was touched by a story reported by Moody Bible Institute a few years ago. It concerned the Christian author, Stuart Briscoe.

            Briscoe, as a young man, had gotten a job with a bank. One day, his boss told him, "If Mr. _______ calls for me, tell him I'm out."

            Briscoe replied, "Oh, are you planning to go somewhere?"

            "No, I just don't want to speak to him, so tell him I'm out."

            "Let me make sure I understand--Do you want me to lie for you?"

            The boss erupted in anger.

            Stuart prayed quickly in his mind, and responded in a way, he believed, that would please God, "You should be happy, because if I won't lie for you, isn't it safe to assume that I won't lie to you?"

            James 5:12b, Let your “Yes” be yes, and your “No,” no, or you will be condemned.

The Family Parrot

            "Lead your life so you won't be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip." 

--Will Rogers

The Job Application

             An old joke goes like this. Several weeks after a young man had been hired, he was called into the personnel director's office.

            "What is the meaning of this?" the director asked. "When you applied for this job, you told us you had five years experience. Now we discovered this is the first job you've ever held."

            "Well," the young man replied, "in your advertisement you said you wanted somebody with imagination."

Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out (Prov. 10:9.) ESV

The Phone Call

            Dick Stovall wrote a bulletin article, several years ago, where he told of a new attorney, who had just opened up his office. He was concerned about building a clientele and, as he heard someone at the door and saw the door opening, he grabbed up the phone, thinking that he must impress this prospective client that he was busy.      

           Pretending he had someone on the phone he said, “Well, I’m very sorry, but it will be at least two weeks due to my present case load before I could possibly take your case.”

            He put down the receiver and asked the man standing in front of his desk, “Yes, Sir, and what can I do for you?”

            The man grinned and said, “I’m here to hook up your phone.”

            Over and over again, Jesus preached against the sin of hypocrisy. Authenticity and integrity are close to His heart.

  

Honesty IS the Best Policy

            A couple of decades ago, Pauline Nichter, 46, and her husband Tom, 44, had both lost their jobs. They were living out of motels with their 11-year-old son. They were in danger of losing their car because they couldn't make the payments.

            One day, Pauline found a wallet in a LA mall. It had a credit card, an airline ticket to New Zealand, and $2394 in cash.

            For a second, she thought about taking the money. But instead she took the wallet to the nearest police station, where the owner reclaimed them. Word of her honesty quickly got out and the community responded.

            The Nichters received more than 10 job offers and an apartment rent-free for six months. An anonymous donor brought the car payments up to date. Other people gave cash. One elderly couple walked into the police station, asked how much cash and had been in the wallet, and the left them a check for the exact amount.

            At a news conference Pauline, with tears, said, "Never in a million years would I have thought this would happen to us. What we have received is far more than what was in the wallet."

            This is a neat story. However, it would have been a neat story even if the Nichter’s had not been blessed by others.

            Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways (Prov. 28:6.)

Two-Faced

Abraham Lincoln was known for his humor. One story, perhaps apocryphal, speaks of Lincoln during the early period of his political career.

Some critics had accused Lincoln of sometimes lying and being two-faced. Hearing this, Lincoln responded, “If I had another face, do you think I would use this one?”

Abraham Lincoln may not have thought he had the luxury of being two-faced, but a lot of us do. It is imperative we be open, honest, and a people of great integrity.

Too Much Flexibility

Last week, I was called to jury duty. I was not selected to serve. That afternoon, I came across an old story about jury selection.

I seems that after being called for jury duty, a woman asked to be excused on the ground that she was opposed to capital punishment.

"But this is a civil suit, " explained the judge. "A woman is suing her ex-husband. It seems she put money aside for six years for a special vacation, but he took it and blew it at the track."

"In that case," she replied, "I could change my views on capital punishment."

Many people are disillusioned with politics because they are disillusioned with politicians. I have lived long enough now to see our nations’ two political parties flip flop positions on issues such as civil rights, fiscal policies, and more.

Perhaps, at times, the politicians were honestly seeking to do the right thing. Sadly, I suspect sometimes their motivation was winning the next election.

Obviously, one of the easiest ways to win is to run against what your opponent believes. Sometimes, politicians have done so—at the expense of their own beliefs.

It takes a lot of people to get good things done in our country. Changing long held views to win a short-term election reduces our chances.

We citizens hold politicians responsible. The best way to keep them in check is to keep ourselves in check. Prov. 21:8 states, “The way of the guilty is devious, but the conduct of the innocent is upright.” The supreme goal in democratic politics is not to win elections; the supreme goal is to do good.

The Phone Call

The Young Coach waited by the phone. He wanted so much to receive a call from the University of Minnesota asking him to be their basketball coach. He had played in the Big Ten. Coaching at Minnesota would be, in a sense, like coming home. The appointed time of 6:00 P.M. came and went. He was disappointed.

At 7:00 P. M., the phone rang. It was from another school out west. The facilities at this college campus were terrible—below the standards of even some high schools. The university did not play in a league as prestigious as the Big Ten. The outlook there did not look as bright as in Minnesota. Still, they called at the appointed time—7:00 P.M. He accepted their offer to coach their men’s basketball team.

At 8:00 P.M., representatives from the University of Minnesota called. There had been a terrible snowstorm. The phone lines had been down. They wished to offer him the job. He told them no.

Frantically, they explained that circumstances beyond anyone’s control had intervened. He could understandably call the other school back and explain to them what had occurred.

Again, he told them his answer was no. He had given his word.

The young coach’s name was John Wooden. The job he accepted was UCLA. Little did he know, when he accepted the UCLA job, he was sitting on a talent gold mine or that he and UCLA would change basketball history. Hear much about the University of Minnesota basketball program?

Wooden harbored no doubts that his life would have turned out different had he gone back on his word. Jesus said that we should let our yes be yes, and our no, no. Obedience to him should be reward enough. Still, it is nice to see John Wooden enjoy the consequences of his decision.

To Tell the Truth

I think General George C. Marshall was one of the greatest people of the twentieth century. Early on, he took a risk that could have eliminated his making any impact on the world.

Marshall was a young officer, drilling men in Europe shortly after the U. S. entered World War I. The men were poorly trained and ill equipped. General John J. Pershing, head of the U. S. Expeditionary Force, stopped by the camp where Marshall was located for an inspection.

Pershing was not pleased and gave Marshall’s commanding officer a tongue-lashing. This was unfortunate considering the fault lay with Pershing. Moreover, there was no hope things would get better.

This lack of integrity, coupled with Army’s upper brass refusing to address the real problems, was too much for Marshall. He pointedly told Pershing the truth.

Marshall’s fellow soldiers thought he had ruined his career. They had become so accustomed to ignoring the truth; they believed Marshall had made a mistake from which he could not recover.

Instead, Pershing was favorably impressed. Weeks later, he plucked Marshall from the ranks to become a chief aid. Later, Marshall became Pershing’s Chief of Staff. Pershing had been looking for a man who would be truthful and speak up. No had done so—until Marshall. Marshall rose through the ranks of the U. S. Army for many reasons, chief of which was he was known for frankly telling the unvarnished truth.

The U. S. Army needed people willing to do so. GOD needs people willing to do so.

Wherever you attend school, wherever you work, please tell the truth. Don’t resort to telling people what they want to hear. Be nice about it, be kind about, but tell the truth. To paraphrase Jesus, every time we say “yes” or “no”, people should never beseech us to take an oath. Our word should be enough.