Integrity challenged!

I was recently sitting in a service listening to a sermon titled "Living with Integrity". It was a fantastic sermon comparing us with the Titanic. If our integrity is compromised just as the integrity of the Titanic was compromised, we will sink. A definition was presented for integrity as "The quality or state of being complete or undivided or incorruptible". One thing that was bothering me constantly however, was, "How do we compete in a corrupt world within our work place for example, with people who don't have that level of integrity?" Let me explain myself using an example... I work as a freelance cameraman/ director in the television industry where you're only as good as your last job. The problem is, unless you land that first job, how do you prove that you're capable? And some times, to land that first job, a "little white lie" (we all know a lie is a lie), painting a better picture of your potential is acceptable... in "the world" that is. If I'm not going to compromise my integrity and tell the absolute truth, chances are, my competition is going to get the job. My question as a result is, where does integrity leave me then?

There was recently a film on the Cinema Nouveau Circuit called "Three Dollars". It is a critical analysis of the greed and corruption that is challenging traditional society. A chemical engineer going by the name Eddie (David Wenham) is testing soil for contamination as part of an environmental impact assessment. When the company tries to bury his honest assessment of severe contamination to save money on the project, Eddie, a man with high integrity blows the whistle on their attempts. When he leaks the information to the press, his reward for having integrity is getting fired and finding himself unemployed with only three dollars to his name. With a wife and a six year old daughter as his responsibilty, the position he finds himself in, destitute and desperate, is amplified dramatically. The film goes on to deal with the question I asked earlier, "How do we compete in a corrupt world, against people who have no integrity?" It deals with his gruelling task to make a new start without denying his honest, generous nature or compromising his integrity. A good man is tested in all areas of his life, tested in his relationship with his wife and daughter; tested in his financial situation, and tested in his morality regarding his work. One question that is addressed is, "Can ordinary people afford to live according to their values?" and "How relevant are those values to the world anyway?" The conclusion, the more corrupt the world becomes, the more instable our lives as moral, Christian human beings with any level of integrity becomes. We will be persecuted in ways we never imagined, we will be tested and sometimes, we may fall but that is where we call on the grace and strength of God, grace to forgive us where we fall and strength to maintain our integrity so that we do not sink.

The ultimate positive outcome, as with all trials, is only the strengthening of our character to remove us one more notch from the world's lack of moral fibre, making us all the more vulnerable and noticeable. And increasing our faith in the Lord's provision all the more.