Job

Integrity: the state of being unimpaired; the quality or condition of being whole, undivided. Completeness.

To me, integrity is a state of character - whether your integrity is, as the definition says, whole or not whole, divided or complete.

The question, “Who are you when no one is looking?”, is asked quite often in bible studies, in youth groups, and at church. But do we ever ask ourselves this question?

In the Bible, Job is put through hell on earth as Satan torments him. God allows this to happen because he knows Job’s heart and describes his servant as “blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” Although Job questions God and curses the day of his own birth, he never sins against the Lord and always holds on to his integrity. Job remains faithful through it all.

The beautiful picture painted for us in the story of Job is quite convicting. While Job holds on to God through his disaster-filled life, even when people expect him to give up, I am challenged to return to myself and ask, “Who am I? And where is my integrity hiding?”

When we begin to apply the principles of integrity to the unseen parts of our lives as well as to the seen parts of our lives, we begin to align ourselves with who God planned for us to be before the creation of the world. This begins to bring a “wholeness” or “completeness” to us that begins to fill the emptiness that every living creature seems to have apart from God. This begins to give us hope when our world seems to be falling apart, just as Job’s world really was, and we begin to comprehend how God can carry us through the upheaval of our lives as well.

My prayer for us, as God’s people, is that we would begin to walk in the “wholeness” God has desired for all of us. Then, as we walk in this new “wholeness”, we may begin to shine in this world of darkness and give hope to those who have none.

- Kori Wooten