THE BENEFITS OF HONESTY
Honesty does not always have a positive effect immediately. Sometimes we
can do the "honest" thing and get our "nose cut off." Look at the situation
of the lady who left her husband because he was beating her and the kids.
There are times when the court system will award visitation rights to the
dad -- even though he has openly admitted he will kidnap and kill the
child! This is insane! Our court system is certainly helping in the decline
of American morals and values!
However, my intention is not to get on this issue, but point out an extreme
situation where a lady tried to follow the "rules of the land" and got the
"short end of the stick." Honesty does NOT always work when you are dealing
with DISHONEST people. Only you can decide how important your personal
morals are.
As for me, I am a firm believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, don't stop
reading here because the words "fanatic" popped into your head. You think
this is going to be another one of those "sermons." Well....it's not. Our
Creator does not require us to wear our hair in a bun, preach on the
sidewalks, jump up and down screaming for money, build large buildings and
sponsor telethons to get money, go to church every day or any number of
other rules established by mankind. No, on the contrary -- God makes it
simple: Just love him.
Our Creator wants a personal relationship with every one of us. It's so
easy to just sit back in life, in the passenger seat and let The Creator
drive the car. He created the Sun, Moon and Planets (Star Trek has nothing
on him). And if you have studied any type of Science or watched the birth
of a child -- you witness first-hand the power of The Creator. If he can do
all of this -- I'm sure he will take care of me.
Let me give you an example of how honesty (temporarily) did NOT pay off for
me: I went to the bank machine about 4 months ago to draw out some money.
The machine made a mistake and gave me two $100 bills instead of two $10
bills. Serious! I was shocked and happy all at the same time. I immediately
ran back to the car, hoping no body saw what happened and left.
Instead of spending the money right away, I put it into an envelope,
waiting to see if the bank caught the mistake. If they did, I would have to
replace the money and I wanted to have it on hand. After 2 weeks, the bank
had not contacted me. Now I was faced with the decision: Should I return
the money and be honest or should I just keep it? I then began to make all
kinds of excuses for keeping the money. I argued with myself, off and on
for another 5 days.
After 5 days, I had totally convinced myself that I would keep the money. I
needed it more than the bank did and they had not missed it. So, I went on
with my day-to-day life. One night I went to bed too early and could not
get to sleep. I picked up the Bible beside my bed and immediately turned to
Jonah 4:5 and began to read.
See, Jonah was upset because he had preached in Nineveh, warning them that
God was going to destroy their city. The people all felt guilty about how
they were living and repented to God. Since God is loving and kind, he
canceled his plans to destroy Nineveh. Jonah was upset because it made him
look like a liar. So, he went out to the east side of the city, made
himself a leafy shelter and waited to see if the city would be destroyed.
When the leaves of the shelter withered in the heat, the Lord arranged for
a vine to grow up quickly and spread its broad leaves over Jonah's head to
shade him. This made him comfortable and very grateful. But God also
prepared a worm! The next morning the worm ate through the stem of the
plant, so that it withered away and died. Then, when the sun was hot, God
ordered a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah, and the sun beat down upon
his head until he grew faint and wished to die. Jonah even prayed to die --
he was in such misery. He asked God, "Is it right for me to be angry enough
to die?" Then, the Lord said, "You feel sorry for yourself when your
shelter is destroyed though you did NO work to put it there, and it is, at
best, short-lived. And why shouldn't I feel sorry for a great city like
Nineveh with its 120,000 people in utter spiritual darkness and all its
cattle?"
This hit home. I did NO work to get that extra $200 and the solid truth of
the matter was that it did NOT belong to me. I had no choice but to return
the money. The next morning, at 9:00am, I was at the bank, returning the
money. I began to feel so proud of myself. "I bet the employees at the bank
will think I'm a saint and perhaps give me some free gift." Finally, the
bank officer called me into his office. I explained the situation to him
and he grew angry. "Why didn't you just keep the money? Do you realize how
much additional paperwork this is going to generate?" I sat there
dumbfounded! Here, I had been the "good guy" and returned their money. You
would think they would be overjoyed. Instead, they're telling me to KEEP
the money!
Anyway, I gave them back their money. I didn't care how much paperwork it
caused them. I even thought, "That's good enough for them taking an
attitude like they did." Oh well, even though I didn't receive any reward
from "mankind" in my attempt to be honest -- I did receive a reward from
The Creator: "Total Peace of Mind."
