Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Achieving Integrity of Allegiance

But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
— JOSHUA 24:15B (NRSV)
There comes a time, and perhaps many of them in different ways, where we have the opportunity to wise-up, and to take counsel from the ages; the lessons we have learned in life. The key to all of this is integrity.
First of all it’s about the meeting of our minds with reality – to honour such a reality without wanting to manipulate it.
Secondly, it’s about a character, and what God is saying to us by the methods and workings of life – what we need to hear, so far as ‘who’ we have been.
Thirdly, it is about the commitment we can make, a recommitment daily, to ensure that integrity speaks for us first and foremost; that through our actions, we are known as a person / household serving the Lord.
The integrity of allegiance – so far as serving the Lord is concerned – is to be our number one goal. Everything else begins from this datum point. When we have the integrity of allegiance, there is no swaying to the right or left; everything is subservient to that goal.
The Pure Beauty of Simplicity in Integrity
At a time when times have seemingly never been busier, we have an important opportunity to come back to the Source of all things, and from there start again, and make it a daily discipline – to start again.
The beauty of the simplistic life – a life burgeoning with power because it is no longer busied by incongruity – is it flourishes with peace and joy.
Because we have committed to one thing and not many things, we are granted peace in the eternal realm, even whilst we remain here on Earth.
This is a cherished position. To have found our way to the secret of life – to know that life begins, has its middle, and ends in God – as its basis – we have found our way to the basis of all things; to the plumbline for all our decision-making.
When there is one thing, and one thing only, by which to rate the things of life, decisiveness and confidence are but two tangible things that win us to a life of integrity.
Integrity is not just about moral character; it’s also about our character of being. We have become more reliable, responsible, rational, realistic, and logical, whilst also having the capacity to feel everything that needs to be felt.
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When we have the integrity of allegiance to God alone, every other priority is sorted, manageable, and achievable with relative decisiveness and confidence. Even the difficult things of life are made easier through an integrity of allegiance to God alone.
We miss the simple life in this busy life of ours. Coming back to God – to the integrity of allegiance – means we are granted order to our days and peace for our nights.
© 2013 S. J. Wickham.

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