Integrity, Fear and Grit

The man walked briskly up to our veranda and passed his small flyer to my wife. I saw her reading the content carefully. Then she said, “Here you read this… looks like we have another problem.”

The brochure asks the question at the top… “Does your home have radon?”

Then it tells you that… “Radon gas is cancer causing… any home may have a radon problem… Radon gas is radioactive, radioactive gas… and testing for radon gas is the only way to know the risk to you and your family.”

Along with the info is a graphic that shows a bunch of wiggly red lines coming into an illustrated house.

My goodness we do have a potential problem. We are all potentially going to die of Radon Gas poisoning… Yikes! And they have a detector kit that you can get free… a $34.95 value. You can detect it…then worry about it.

Then if enough worrying is there… you can try to sell you house… and not tell the next poor, unsuspecting buyer that they will also die of cancer causing radon gas that a pamphlet told me is leaking into every crevice and orifice of my basement.

If I don’t tell the buyers of the future and they find out that I know… won’t they sue me? But I guess that I will be dead from the cancer causing radon gas anyway… so it won’t matter.

I have been living here in this house for 10 years and regularly sitting in my lazy boy chair in that basement – resting peacefully after a long days work. I am likely saturated with this evil gas.

Pamphlets are designed to make me so afraid that I will call 1-800-stopradon… or wherever…

When you read enough of this stuff you will not sleep at night. Alida sleeps well… and she also throws out all the pamphlets when she gets them. This morning I woke and for a tiny bit of time I listened to see if I could hear the radon gas seeping through our bedroom walls.

Nope nothing today… but then the other pamphlet warned me that at my age my hearing was not very good now… and I would only be able to hear properly if I bought the super, mega small hearing aid with instructions as to how not to lose them inside your head because they are so small. More insecurity and fear – thank you very much!

The Pamphlet points to major issue – Integrity. Is the pamphlet true? Will the things being said and done really help you – or does it just harm you with more fear?

Integrity issues are real.

A wife that cannot depend on her husband will be afraid – have fear – about a future with unfaithfulness. The husband doesn’t have Integrity.

An employer will have struggles with a dishonest employee – and have fears of being robbed blind by the one that they have employed. This is likely the greatest failure place for a lack of Integrity.

Integrity issues lead to Fear. Fear leads to losses of all kinds… loss of sleep… loss of trust… in fact potentially a loss of everything.

I point to a very simple fact – in the middle of our word “Integrity” is a smaller one that is simply spelled “G-R-I-T”.

It takes “G-R-I-T” to stand up for what you know is true and right. It take “G-R-I-T” to be the best employee when all the others are not being honest with their time and work. It takes “G-R-I-T” to stand for what you believe to be true.

“G-R-I-T” does not mean you will not FEAR… but it will sure help you to face the FEAR.

The expression for that attitude is "grit your teeth." And when you're dealing with troubling circumstances, it's really important to demonstrate integrity with what you say and do. GRIT has never hurt anyone.

Yesterday…
Yesterday I read over every Ontario MPP’s name and looked at their photos on the Web Site for the Ontario government. I am praying for each one as I approach this new task of Provincial Chaplain. As I looked closely at each person and prayed I realized that more than anyone person in our society – these men and women have been placed in situations where all they have is Integrity.

Our elected officials at every level have been placed there by people that believe in their Integrity… then will watch(and even challenge) that Integrity.

Every level of elected office face integrity issues on a daily basis. Every position of trust whether they are, Judges, Police Officers, Teachers and Ministers – you name it… MUST HAVE INTEGRITY…MUST HAVE GRIT.

My new calling is to pray specifically for my elected leaders and to also motivate more around me to do the same.

Now if I say that I am doing that and don’t do it… I am another Pamphlet that can be discarded – or should be.

I am either a person of Integrity – or not.

How about you?

~ Murray Lincoln ~