Honesty Pays!
A customer who ate at Randy’s Southside Diner in Grand Junction unluckily left $3,000 in a bank envelope at his booth. Fortunately, his busboy was Johnny Duckworth. Johnny gave it to his boss, who through the ATM bank slip in the envelope was able to track down the rightful owner. That unnamed person gave Johnny a $300 tip, but strangers started a “gofundme” page for the struggling Duckworth and have raised nearly $4000 for the young man. In an interview, he said he did not for a moment consider keeping the money, adding, “I work for a living.”
You’ve not likely had honesty pay so well for you. At least not financially. But, as the proverbial adage goes, “honesty does pay.” How?
- In reputation. Honestly builds businesses, friendships, leadership, and the like, when people have implicit confidence in your word (cf. Proverbs 14:25).
- In relationships. People trust you and are closer to you when you are honest with them. The opposite is true, too, that people keep their emotional distance from you if you are dishonest (Ephesians 4:25).
- In righteousness. Your character is built through dedication to unconditional truthfulness (Proverbs 12:17).
- In reliability. Who will people come to, lean on, and go to? The honest. They know where they stand with such a one (Proverbs 12:19).
- In respect. While you may fear hurting feelings and alienating others through courageous honesty, you gain the admiration of most through transparency and scrupulous speech and behavior (1 Kings 22:13-14).
Sadly, doing the right thing was once routine, but now it merits newsworthiness. May the tribe of Johnny Duckworths increase. When we as Christians are renowned for our kind honesty, we will draw a world in search of goodness and trustworthiness to the One who “cannot lie” (Titus 1:2).
Wall Street Ethics
Byron Sherwin, in his book WHY BE GOOD, sarcastically recalls, "Once I was browsing in a bookstore when I saw a huge volume with an intriguing title: WALL STREET ETHICS. I opened it eagerly only to find that each of its hundreds of pages was blank."
When we read this at IE, we were skeptical. So we did a little research and it turned out the book is real. It's entitled THE COMPLETE BOOK OF WALL STREET ETHICS by Jay L. Walker and was published by William Morrow & Co., April 1987.
Writes one reviewer, "If you are not familiar with this book, it is a joke, and a pretty good one. The pages are all blank. … Today, after so many new Wall Street scandals, it probably needs to be updated with a new edition with more blank pages."
How would a book that recorded all of the things that you have done to earn your place in heaven read? The only possible answer is that its pages would all be blank. Not only that, but no matter how hard you tried, all of the updated editions would only add more blank pages. That's because nothing that we do with the motive of self-justification will ever be acceptable to God. Rather, earning the prize of heaven requires a righteousness that is perfect, not only in every action, but in every motive behind every action. It requires the righteousness of Christ.
"As the Scriptures say, "No one is righteous--not even one" (Romans 3:10, NLT).
Full But Not Fulfilled
The Huffington Post reports:
You’ve just eaten 10 Taco Bell tacos and drank a frozen Mountain Dew and you still feel suspiciously hungry. You’ve consumed about 1,880 calories, but your body isn’t satisfied. What’s happening?
Studies show that satiety, the mechanism that stops us from eating more than what we need, has less to do with caloric intake than it does with the intake of certain macronutrients - types of protein, carbohydrates, and fat - and the physical volume of food. We’re getting plenty of calories when we eat a full sleeve of Oreos, but we’re not getting the nutrients that our bodies need for high quality, sustainable energy. Even though it may feel like a large volume of food, it moves through us quickly - meaning the feeling of fullness fades after we eat.
They continue:
The satiety level of a food is partially due to its nutrient density, which refers to the ratio of nutrients to calories. Though highly caloric, junk foods supply a much lower amount of nutrients compared to the volume of food. In other words, all calories aren’t created equal. For 100 calories, we can eat about 15 cups of spinach or two Oreos. The spinach will physically fill our stomachs with more food, plus provide dietary fiber and vital nutrients. The Oreos, on the other hand, provide little more than intense levels of simple carbohydrates, which give us quick bursts of energy that don’t last.
Desiring less than Jesus’ righteousness results in being unfulfilled.
If we are hurting deep in our belly for Jesus’ presence and guidance, we are on the right path, feeling an intense longing … wanting Jesus’ righteousness as much as a starving person wants food and a parched person wants clean water to drink. Those who have that desire have the promise to be filled. It’s an emptiness which opens us to the filling of the Holy Spirit.
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled" (Matthew 5:6, NIV).
"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you" (Matthew 6:33).
"My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work" (John 4:34, NLT).