Integrity Shmegrity!

Have you ever done something with the thought, "Hey no one will find out and no one is looking?"?

Or

Have you purposely broken a rule because you justified that it was ok?

I am a big fan of integrity. I believe it is should be one of the key character traits of all Christians. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. We have to remember God sees all but don’t have integrity because you are afraid God will smite you down with a lightning bolt. It needs to be a personal conviction from living in his grace. Grace will help you to want to be righteous not because you have to but because through God you have the ability to be.  I have a few things that I strongly stick to and others that I may have a tendency to bend the rules a bit. For example I am a pretty good driver I think. I don’t go through red lights and I stop at stop signs because it’s the right thing to do but I have something wrong with my right foot. I think there is lead in it or something because I also have a terrible habit of speeding. (You would think I would have learned a lesson getting fined and loosing double demerit points on a long weekend but no.) So I too, stick to some rules and knowingly ignore others.

The reason I’m blogging about integrity is because it is one of the characteristics of mine that has been tested here in Indonesia. I started thinking about it the other day when I got my Indonesian driver’s license. Before I came here I forgot to get my international license and I’d been scootering around with no official license. I figured if I get pulled over I’ll play dumb and give the police officer 50,000 rupiah and I’ll be on my way. This of course stressed my parents out and not to mention if anything happened my insurance wouldn’t cover me because I didn’t have a license. So after purchasing my new second hand scooter (pictured below) I decided I better get my license. When we knowingly disobey we take ourselves out from under God’s umbrella of protection right.

After my experiences with the long process at immigration every month I was dreading the process for making my SIM (driver’s license) but my dread was in vain. The process can be short depending on the size of your wallet. I went to the police station with my Indo dad, Pak Ronny (the house parent from the orphanage). I was going to drive but was afraid of getting fined however it would have been totally fine to. Only in Indonesia. Pak Ronny made friends with a police man. After they talked and I gave him a photo copy of my passport, he then scurried away into another room only to comeback with my form all filled out for me all I had to do was sign. I start searching for my Aussie license thinking, they are going to want to view it maybe even photocopy it. No such request is made. I then go into another little room (meanwhile there are people waiting in the lobby just outside to enter the same room) I smile at a lady who checks the details on my form are the same as the computer. I then am ushered into another little room where I politely sit in front of a camera, get my photo taken and have my finger prints scanned. I then go and wait in the lobby with the other masses only to be called in 2 minutes and handed this baby:

Pak Ronny laughed and said in Indonesia corruption is everywhere. Even though I paid a little extra then a license actually costs I got my license in no longer than 20 minutes. I literally didn’t take a driving test or have to prove that I had a license of any sort. This is just the way things are done here. I should accept them right? But there is this little nagging voice in my head screaming this can’t be right. Where does integrity come in when it’s the norm and expected thing to do? Do I follow a culture or do I stand for righteousness. Paying off a police man can’t be right, can it? I’ll admit I didn’t go back and wait in line like the rest of the people who don’t have the money to cut the lines and I probably won’t next time I have to go and renew the license.

SO where am I going with this? If this experience didn’t change me…. I don’t know lol. Maybe this. There’s a question you need to ask yourself because as I’ve learned people’s views of what are right and wrong are not always in black and white because we are all different. I think the best way to help you make decisions with integrity is to ask yourself, would I be willing to blog about this, post on facebook or twitter, or tell my grandmother about what I am going to do. If the answer is no then it’s probably a good sign that you shouldn’t do “that thing” you weren’t sure if you should do or not.There is no integrity handbook but we do have life’s best instruction manual,the bible. Read it!