“You don’t have to be in the business of integrity to know the impact of strong character. Every time you interact with someone, your personal ‘integrometer’ is quietly probing the situation for evidence of personal convictions.”*
Even though ‘integrometer’ isn’t a real word, I’ll let it slide, because I like the concept. I like it and I don’t. It’s challenging but daunting to know that people around us are silently taking notes on us, measuring our integrity — to some extent regardless of whatever image we try to project because our real selves usually exude out of us or at least spill out at some point. And that unconsciously, we engage in the same practice of measuring others.
The guy who coined the term, Ben Ortlip, suggests thinking about these four things when measuring your own integrity:
1) Do you avoid certain people?
2) Do you struggle with insecurity?
3) What do people say about you?
4) What do you say about people?
I thought it was interesting that he saw struggling with insecurity as an indication that work could be done in the integrity department. I guess he figures that if you’re insecure about yourself, there’s probably a reason you are and that reason is that you are lacking in an area of your character that you shouldn’t be. Tough love Ortlip.
It’s worth thinking about anyway — what score do you think you’d get on an integrometer if such an instrument existed?
*Excerpt from Catalyst Magazine, 2006, written by Ben Ortlip.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
How do you measure up?
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2 comments:
I reckon I'd get a 12 - but I'm not sure of the scale.
Could be out of 100.
Some great questions. Great because they don't seem to be typical questions you'd ask to establish whether a person is integrous or not. I get #3 - that's probably an obvious one but you'd expect more about what one does that says.
There's a good link between Q1 and Q2 to explore methinks.
The Principal of my bible college used to say that integrity is when your insides and your outside match. We don't always see the discontinuities or the disintegration. Spotting the problem areas and owning them is a great place to start. Structural integrity of buildings seems to be about finding the weaknesses that could bring the whole structure down. I find that analogy helpful.
Integrity used to be such a nebulous concept to me, drawing on honesty, mostly. But I find it very helpful to focus on both the outward me (my words and actions) and the inward me (my beliefs and feelings) and to seek congruence.
Thank God for healing.
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