Compromised Integrity

What does compromised integrity mean to you dear reader?

What if I were to say, Compromised integrity are lies come to life; lies manifesting in the flesh, in real time, in actuality? Would you agree with this statement?

You and I both know what it means to compromise our integrity. Before the self-betrayal, we have that should I shouldn't I niggling feeling of doubt, knowing that if we think too long and too hard on the matter, we may say no to something or someone we really want to have in our lives. Quick like ripping off the proverbial bandaid, the decision has to be made NOW, if we really want to have what we want NOW, and once that choice has been made, a certain fate has been sealed. This is a fait accompli, with a twist: the outcomes, the consequences have to be accepted and oft times, what we have to live with can be devastating and soul sickening. 

When we lie to ourselves, in the simple small things, or alternatively monstrously large in magnitude, we can see incremental injury and again, alternatively, massive maiming as a result. Take for instance, consuming one hundred calories more than you burn each day. In one week, you have added seven hundred little extras to your body, and within five weeks, without stoppage, in five short weeks you will be carting around a supplemental pound. This may seem like a small thing, an incremental injury to your body, but dear reader, let us do the math: 

100 calories a day X 7 days = 700

1 pound = 3500 calories

5 weeks = 1 pound

10 wks   = 2 pounds

20 wks   = 4 pounds

40 wks   = 8 pounds

52 wks   = 10.4285714 pounds ... that is one year of incremental, seemingly innocent weight gain from a little bite of this, and small taste of that, or even one big sloppy fast food "meal" a week. 

Tell your pants they ought not be so unkind to you when they squeeze and bite you around the waist. Tell your chest it ought not to slouch so, when you are trying to get it to rise to the occasion of looking perky and proud. Tell your intestines and stomach not to ache, and to behave themselves, despite all the extra work they have to do from the extra calories you stuffed into them. 

🔥 Now, did you or did you not, compromise the integrity of your physical health?

🔥 Are you, or are you not, responsible for each teeny tiny extra calorie that hugs you tightly in places you wish they wouldn't be so obvious?

🔥 Were you force fed? Did someone hold a plastic gun to your head and say, EAT, EAT, or DIE?

How have you compromised your integrity, dear reader? Is it food, drink, wearing masks, being "tested", getting injected ... what did you say yes to before considering outcomes, long term consequences, injury, illness, maiming, permanent disability and possible death?

How did you interact with someone or many someones privately, sexually, socially, that compromised who you want to be, that needs to be seriously assessed, prayed about, and repented over? 

As I reflect on my own sins and the confession of them to God, and even before other imperfect humans, I realize how gracious, how merciful, how very kind and loving He is. I have sinned greatly, confessed much, and been flat on my face many a time, tearfully pleading with Him to make things better, make them right. Not long ago I wasn't sure if healing was available to me, or even if life would ever be somehow okay again ... 

There were times He peeled me off the floor, and gave me the strength to carry on. There are situations He resolved that I know I had no say or control over. People I love are healed; He healed them, dear one, and He alone has that kind of might and power. 

Now here I sit, wanting desperately for so many, to go before him and beg for His hand on their lives. People have compromised their integrity by saying yes to things they knew they ought to have said no to. They repeated this theme and now there is a price to pay, with the accumulated sins weighing heavily on their souls, their spirits unable to fly freely. That's what sin does, it presses down and in on us, until we no longer resemble the person God designed us to be ...

But where there is hope, there too, is God. When we place our faith and trust in Him and take the time to consider our integrity rather than our immediate desire, making holy and wholesome decisions, the outcomes can be glorious in countless ways. 

It is time, dear one, to consider your sins. Do a self-analysis and when your mind lands on a memory that makes you feel squirmy and has you wanting to forget, narrow your vision and take an even closer look. Chances are good you compromised your integrity and you are now living the manifestation of that choice, or the series of choices that seem to travel insidiously in packs (sin, like calories, are hard to single out: try to eat just ONE calorie ... try to sin just a LITTLE bit).

We have seen ourselves fishtail. We have seen our neighbours, friends, relatives, and strangers, compromise what it means to look and sound like the God that made us. We have sinned greatly and we must in turn, repent greatly too. 

NOW, is the time, as individuals and the collective, because God wants none to be lost. 

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9)