Honesty

Honesty

May integrity and honesty protect me, for I put my hope in you.

EACH TIME I VISITED Tom’s small farm, I’d pull into the gravel driveway and step out into the humid heat of summer, the whine of mosquitoes loud in the quiet lane of the country farm. Next, I’d grip a plastic basket with gallon-sized glass jars tucked inside, carefully walking around the barn cat that wound around my feet and ignoring its insistent purring as I’d enter the shed. After snagging a small stool, I’d place it next to the tank and fill my jars. Once I was finished, I would close the spigot and rinse the floor, hefting now-full jars of fresh milk into my arms. On the way out the door, I’d pause to place six worn dollar bills under the hammer placed at eye level.

For years, I stopped at Tom’s farm. Sometimes I’d run into him, and he’d pause from his work to chat. But other than learning the process the first time, it was up to me to follow through with his protocol. And as far as payment goes, I was on the honor system.

The expectation of honesty felt a little jarring, at first. Nice, but jarring. What kind of person trusted people enough to let them walk into their barn unsupervised? Didn’t he know people could leave without paying for a product that he relied on to pay his bills?

It’s true that some people probably did leave without paying. There will always be people who try to take advantage of others; the incidence of evil is very real in our broken world.

Tom’s reliance on the honesty of others didn’t reflect his assessment of other people’s character, but of his own. There’s a quote from the Disney movie Pollyanna that I love: “When you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will.” If we focus exclusively on terrible things in the world around us, every negative circumstance will confirm our belief that the world is an awful place. The opposite is also true—if we choose to look for the good in people, we’ll find it. As citizens of heaven, our hope is not in people but in the Lord. The content of our character isn’t a magical elixir that protects us, but rather evidence of the confident hope that we place in Jesus.

Lord, help us to choose to be honest even when it feels hard. Amen.

-Kristin

One Good Step: Is there an area in your life that you have been dishonest about? How can you remedy the situation?