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).
Cultivating Empathy
Denmark has been teaching mandatory empathy curriculum to their students aged 6 to 16 since 1993, with pretty impressive results. Currently ranked #2 on the World Happiness Report dashboard, it has consistently ranked among the happiest nations throughout the modern era.
As reported:
Denmark’s empathy program starts at age six in the first year of school and continues until age sixteen. For one hour each week, the children have empathy lessons during ‘Klassens tid’ or ‘The Class’s Hour’. ...
What many people don’t realise is that empathy is a learned skill, and that teaching empathy from a young age has not only been proven to make children more emotionally and socially competent, it also greatly reduces bullying and can also help them be more successful as adults in the future. ...
Any problem is open for discussion and could be personal problems or problems between individual students or groups, anything regarding the school or even unrelated to school. The rest of the class, and the teacher then debate ways to solve the problem. The teacher helps the students by teaching them how to really listen to and understanding others. ...
Klassens tid, is the students’ opportunity to be heard and receive encouragement and inspiration from others through listening and simultaneously learn the importance of mutual respect.
Surely we, in our churches, our classrooms, and our families, could take a page out of Denmark's text book to actively teach the principles of empathy and compasstion. They are, after all, learned behaviors ... and the benefits bode well for the happiness and spiritual health of both the giver and the recipient!
"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2, ESV).
"Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep" (Romans 12:15, ESV).
"Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you" (Ephesians 4:32, ESV).
"If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together" (1 Corinthians 12:26, ESV).
"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience" (Colossians 3:12, ESV).