The Lesson in Integrity

For the last twenty years, Dick Knoebel has been the Chief of Police in the small town of Kewaskum, Wisconsin. Last September Chief Knoebel made the national news for writing a ticket to a motorist who drove past a stopped school bus. The ticket resulted in a fine of $235 and an increased insurance premium.

Why did an every day traffic violation make the news? Because the Chief wrote the ticket to himself. He drove past the school bus in his police cruiser with his lights flashing and suddenly realized what he had done. He wrote the ticket to himself and paid the fine. The story surfaced after it showed up in court records and local media reports. Knoebel says he has received 150 congratulatory e-mails from places like Thailand, Russia and New Zealand. Two people offered to send him money to help with the fine, but he turned down the offers.

Dick Knoebel’s actions are a great example of integrity. Someone has defined integrity as what you do when no one else is watching. Integrity implies a consistency with your words and deeds, regardless of the circumstances. Ultimately, integrity goes deeper than your words and deeds, to the core of your being. It is more a matter of who you are, than what you say or do.

Integrity is critical if you are going to honor God in this life. It becomes an internal GPS, sort of a moral compass that guides you through the many temptations which the world throws your way. Without integrity, a man will be loss in the moral relativity that permeates our culture. He will make his choices based on intimidation, greed or blind ambition, rather than the eternal principles of God’s Word.

Proverbs 11:3 reminds us, “The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the crookedness of the treacherous will destroy them.” My brother, I challenge you to be a man of integrity today. Be consistent in what you do and say, that Christ may be honored and you may be blessed.

Shoulder to Shoulder,

Gregg