“The godly walk with integrity; blessed are their children who follow them.” -Proverbs 20:7

Following two years of junior college in Fayette, Alabama, I had the privilege of attending and graduating from, Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Tennessee. Like most schools of higher learning, Trevecca has a motto fashioned from Latin: Esse quam videri— “To be rather than to seem.”

That motto can be summed up in a single word: integrity.

Integrity means living one life—exhibiting an integrated self; it means being who we say we are—without duplicity; it means that our private life matches our public life, with nothing hidden for the sake of appearance. In a culture drunk on image, such a life is far from easy.

Integrity is, consequently, a great challenge. In truth, it has been the challenge of humanity since God first breathed life into the “dust man,” Adam. Adam failed the integrity test, and so all of us after him: In Adam’s fall, we sinned all.

Some might argue that living a life of genuine authenticity is impossible, made so by our depraved nature and the profound weakness of our flesh (our frail humanity).

But is it really impossible? If “through Christ all things are possible,” might it then be conceivable to live an integrated life, a life of “wholeness” or holiness (holiness meaning “a life set apart” for Divine purposes)? What would that look like? How should we begin?

Repentance: if we have been “hiding” behind a facade of righteousness while privately behaving in an unrighteous manner, then we should acknowledge that and sincerely repent.

Eyes on Jesus: He is our Champion, the One who initiates and perfects our faith (Hebrews 12). We gladly answer the call to “follow Him” as His disciples, as His apprentices in Kingdom living, learning each day how to live life according to His example and plan by humbly submitting to Him as our Teacher and Lord.

Word and Spirit: we purpose to read the Word with regularity, filling our minds with the transforming power contained therein, and we diligently cultivate the life of the Spirit within us because “He will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I (Jesus) have told you” (John 14).

Prayer and meditation: we deliberately spend time in solitude and silence, listening for the “still, small voice” of God, so that we might move in His direction, thereby putting our faith into action as we are “led by the Spirit.”

If we, with regularity and focused intention, practice these things, we will be equipped to live a life pleasing to God, and, in addition, our life will come to genuinely resemble the life of our Teacher, i.e., truth in advertising—Esse quam videri—we will be who we say we are.

This doesn’t happen instantaneously, but it definitely does come to fruition as we, the women and men of God, stay the course and purpose to follow through on our commitment to live a life of integrity in joyous obedience to our good Father.

If ever there was a day when we need a great host of godly women and men who walk with integrity, it is today; so, let’s determine to be counted among those godly women and men—for the sake of our children and for the advancement of the Kingdom of God in our world. 78

A fellow beggar along the Way,

Greg