Piloting Faith: Webster defines integrity as "the state of being whole and undivided."

A Word for the Day...

Given our current political realities, I've been thinking a great deal about integrity. What does it mean to have integrity? What is lost when you compromise it?

Webster defines integrity as "the state of being whole and undivided." When you hold your integrity, you are aligned, grounded in your sense of self as the clearest expression of what is true in you. Authenticity becomes the outward expression of your inner integrity. It's how the rest of us know that you are whole.

In many churches across the nation, this coming Sunday we will be looking at a text from the Gospel of Luke, 3:15-17 (The Message) -

"The interest of the people by now was building. They were all beginning to wonder, “Could this John be the Messiah?” But John intervened: “I’m baptizing you here in the river. The main character in this drama, to whom I’m a mere stagehand, will ignite the kingdom life, a fire, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He’s going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.”

One of the great gifts that Jesus brings to us is "changing us from the inside out." He calls to each of us to live aligned with our deepest wisdom and longings, to live integrated. When we fail to do this, we miss out on real living. We live a caricature of life, like that we see on "reality tv," that gives the illusion of authenticity without the internal integrity forged from the fire of honest living.

One way to read this text is that Jesus comes to baptize us into our truest, most real selves. May it be so in my life and yours.

- Rev. Cameron Trimble, author of Piloting Church: Helping Your Congregation Take Flight

Prayer for the Week

Lord,

Give us our daily bread.

May this simple prayer flourish in my heart and mind today. Let it teach me how wholly dependent I am on you for the basics, and how I can trust you for my needs.

Jesus, you asked us to ask.

For the millions who have too little to eat today, have mercy. May all those in positions of power and abundance have mercy, too - mercy that provides for those in need. Show me my necessary part in your provision so those who need food, water, and welcome can find it in our culture, that they might live with safety, health, and dignity.

Amen.

(adapted from The Prayer Wheel by Patton Dodd, Jana Riess, and David Van Biema)