Walking in Integrity

 

My morning meditations today (August 26, 2019) have prompted me to consider, yearn for and renew my embrace of the simplicity of a fully integrated life and to appreciate how my aspiration to keep focused on Jesus has restored my equilibrium through many wobbles for many years. These reflections took me back to two books that were formative for me as a young adult seeking to walk with Jesus. Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Christ the Center (written in German in 1933 published in English in 1966) and Mark Link’s He Is the Still Point of the Turning World (1971). I am also reminded of Jesus’ words to Martha in Luke 10:41-42 “You are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.”

 

Yes, in my career starting in Christian education and concluding as a pastor, many things competed to worry and distract me from Jesus. These days as my priority is caring for my wife of 50 years, Candy,  on her Alzheimer's journey and supporting her 92 year old father who recently moved from Minnesota to Wisconsin, focusing of Jesus is essential to handling those things with joy. I make no claim of spiritual prowess, only gratitude for the powerful gravity of love that has kept drawing me back to Jesus at the center of everything else.

 

So here are the lines from my meditation and prayer today.

 

Psalm 26:1,11

I have walked in my integrity.

I walk in my integrity.

 

Psalm 56:13

That I may walk before God in the light of life.

 

Psalm 86:11

Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name.

 

Psalm 116:7

Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

 

Psalm 146:2

I will sing praises to my God all my life long.

 

Luke 14:11

All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.