Acting with integrity

Meanwhile……..

During the time Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s officers who guarded the doorway, became angry and conspired to assassinate King Xerxes. But Mordecai found out about the plot and told Queen Esther, who in turn reported it to the king, giving credit to Mordecai. And when the report was investigated and found to be true, the two officials were impaled on poles. All this was recorded in the book of the annals in the presence of the king.  Esther 2:21-23

It’s really hard when you witness something you wish you hadn’t witnessed, isn’t it?

You wish you could unhear a conversation or unsee an action. Maybe you pretend to yourself that you heard nothing, you saw nothing, you embrace denial. You really, really, really don’t want to get involved. You don’t want to cause trouble. You don’t want to land anyone in it. You don’t want that awkward conversation. It’s nothing to do with you. you should just stay out of it. Someone else will notice. Someone else will do something. You don’t want to risk your friendships. You don’t want to risk your job. No one will believe you anyway.

We’ve all been there.

I remember last year I heard something about one of my colleagues that I really wished I hadn’t found out. Because once I knew, I couldn’t sit back and do nothing. But I really didn’t want to do anything. This wasn’t my battle. I didn’t want to get involved.

But it’s all about acting with integrity, isn’t it? Doing the right thing. The stories I heard when I was in America last year about colleagues all over the world acting with integrity in really difficult situations inspired me and challenged me. One colleague from South America stood up against sexual harassment from a manager. Another colleague from South Africa refused to join in with and exposed an organised group that were stealing from the warehouse at his store. This is hard. Really hard. It takes a lot of courage. It deserves to be rewarded.

Walmart is big on Ethics and Integrity. As was its founder –

Personal and moral integrity is one of our basic fundamentals and it has to start with each of us.   Sam Walton

Integrity matters. In every situation.

And so Mordecai overhears a plot to assassinate the king and he tells Esther who tells the king. This is hard. Really hard. It takes a lot of courage. They risked their lives. Fortunately it was the scheming officials who lost their lives. And Mordecai is given the credit for saving the king’s life.

I’ll leave you with just a couple more quotes on integrity to reflect on –