Insight for the Journey

Integrity is doing the right thing, especially when it costs us. Our lives speak powerfully for Christ when we live that way.

Now the only way you can really measure integrity is when a person is under pressure. When things are going well you can’t really measure integrity. The only way to measure it is to see them under stress, to see them in a situation where it’s going to cost them to tell the truth or do the right thing. Then you can tell.

In a story called “Catch of a Lifetime”, James Lenfestey tells the story of a life-changing experience an 11 year old boy had with his father. Every year his family would go up to their cabin which was on an island in New Hampshire. The cabin was out in the middle of a gorgeous lake. He loved to fish off of the fishing dock. One day he’s on the fishing dock, it’s the day before bass season opens. Now, as an 11 year old kid he’s not fishing for bass. He’s using worms and he’s fishing for sun fish and perch, things like that. He’s been fishing all day long, it’s almost sunset, and his dad comes out to join him. And they are fishing together off the dock. What a beautiful scene!

Pretty soon the sun is going down, the moon is coming out, it’s a beautiful New Hampshire evening. The moon is glistening off the lake. It’s a special time with a father and son in the quiet of the evening. Pretty soon the son gets bored. He decides he wants to practice his casting. Reaching into the tackle box, he takes out a silver lure, ties it on and begins to cast into the lake just for practice. And this goes on for a while in the quiet of the night… and all of a sudden, his fishing rod doubles over. He doesn’t know what he has but it is huge! And his dad has taught him how to work a fish slowly and skillfully to bring it in until the fish kind of wears himself out. And so he is practicing this, bringing the fish in. His Dad is so proud as he watches his son practice what he has taught him. As he raises the fish out of the water, it’s the most magnificent and the largest fish this boy has ever seen. It’s an enormous bass. And he says there in the moon light I looked at my dad, and my dad looked at me and without saying a word, dad reached into his pants pocket, pulled out some matches and he lit a match and checked his watch. It was ten o’clock. Two hours before bass season started.

The dad said “Son, we are going to have to put this fish back. The boy protested, “but dad”, the dad said “No son, there will be other fish.” “But dad, there won’t be other fish like this fish.” 

And the boy looked around, they were there all alone, nobody in sight on a deserted dock at ten o’clock at night. No other boats on the lake. And he thought, “No one will ever know when I caught this fish.” But as he caught his dad’s eye, he realized this was a non-negotiable. He took the fish and lowered him back in the water and with one swish of his powerful tail this enormous bass was gone forever back in the lake.

The eleven year old boy is now a successful architect in New York City. His dad has since died, but he still owns that cabin in New Hampshire. Every year he takes his son and two daughters there and he has taught them how to fish off that same dock. And he says, “I have never, ever caught a fish that magnificent again. But I still see that fish over and over again when as an architect I come up against a tough issue of integrity. Every time I’m under a deadline and I’m tempted to cut corners on drawings. Every time I come up with insight or insider information and I can make a lot of money in the stock market. Every time when it’s ten o’clock on the dock of my life and no one else is around” he said “I see that fish and I remember the lesson my father taught me that integrity is about doing the right thing especially when it costs you.”

Wow! I like that. And it’s true.