Integrity...

What does it mean to have integrity? Well, are you the same person when you are at church? ...at school? ... alone at home? ...in another country? ...when you are around your friends? ...when you are around your family? ...when you are having a bad day? ...when you are having a good day? ...when God seems far away? ... when God feels close?

A man or woman of integrity will be the same everywhere, with friends and family, at school and at church, with people or when alone. The rules never change, so why should our actions change? Could you do what you are doing with your friends with the same confidence on a Sunday morning? Would it be OK if Jesus suddenly walked into your room when you were watching TV? Would you mind if you met one of your Christian friends in the movie section at Blockbuster?

But it's not enough to say that we are the same everywhere when our "same" does not reflect the image of Christ. Our "same" has to be pure, faultless, blameless, white as snow. That is Christian integrity... being the same person (who is striving towards righteousness) all the time, no matter who is with us, where we are, who we assume is watching.

Imagine a group of athletes. They meet at the track every day and begin warming up by stretching. After warming up their bodies they take to the track, but "no one" is watching them practice so they don't need to go for the gold because they are only playing around. Then imagine the horror they would feel if an Olympic scout appeared from "nowhere" and began choosing the ones he thought were worthy of competing.

Run the race well because God is watching. He is the Scout, watching and waiting, wanting you to do your best. He is watching, and we have no room for slack when it comes to our race. We have to produce gold metal quality runs all though out the day, no matter how tired, no matter how many hurdles obstruct our path, no matter who is telling us we cannot win, no matter what our attitudes we choose to have that day are. God demands perfection, and we cannot blame anyone but ourselves when our times don't measure up.

Thank You?

So, I have had tests all week it seems, and I noticed something today after geog. that I have never noticed before: when you hand in a test, both the recipient and giver say thank you.

Now I know that some of the loyal few are students, and if you think about it, don't you realize that you say thank you when you finally hand in those pages covered in blood, sweat and tears?

The more I thought about this, the more confused I felt. Why the heck would I say thank you for torture? POW's don't say thank you to their captors... Jailbirds don't say thank you to the policeman who dragged him in. It's almost like I'm enjoying this...

And then I kept thinking... Why in the world would the teacher say thank you? I'm giving him work to do! Does an employee thank his boss for bringing in a mountainous stack of paperwork to file?

Then it dawned on me.

I was saying thank you for the opportunity to learn. I was thanking him for his time spent preparing the lectures. I was thanking him for the time he would spend grading 43 test papers, one of them being mine. I was thanking him for being open to answering questions so that I could take this test, pass the course and eventually graduate and build a life for myself. I was thanking him for his part in preparing me for my future.

And as for his thank you, he was thanking me for working hard. He was thanking me for trying to pass his class and at least look like I learned something and kinda enjoyed it.

yup, so there's my random thought for the day.

Dark

Have you ever tried to do something in the dark? I mean, so dark that you can't tell if there is a wall three inches from your face. Yeah, DARK. I have been trying this experiment of walking around in the dark to see if my brain can remember where everything (chairs, benches, counters, walls, light switches etc.), and it's AMAZING how well one's brain will automatically fill in the blanks.

I actually tried for the first time to use the restroom in the dark this afternoon. That was an interesting experience, but I have to say, it wasn't as bad as I thought it could have been.

The other day I walked down the stairs (without using the railing) to see if my brain remembered how many stairs there are. Luckily I didn't end up rolling to the bottom when carefully felt my way down.

I also tried walking all the way up the stairs (there is a U turn almost at the top) and walked all the way into my parents bedroom, past their bed, around random pieces of furniture and into the bathroom, and amazingly, I put my hand right on the light switch (correct button and all).

Our brains are amazing, and do things that we don't often realize how important they are. Take care of you brain, my friends!