Integrity
(excerpted from Joseph, Charles R. Swindoll)
Reflections on Joseph, son of Jacob, Prime Minister of the Pharaoh of Egypt. You can read about this man in the Bible: Genesis, Chapters 37-50.
As an employee, Joseph was loyal, accountable, wise, objective, and efficient. As a leader, he was efficient, wise, objective, and flexible. There was also a quiet and secure calmness in his leadership that is beautiful.
Which brings us to a third characteristic of Joseph. He arranged survival with personal integrity. We’re back to this quality of integrity again. It surfaces over and over in the man’s life and leadership…
As the years of famine progressed, everyday life as they had once enjoyed it deteriorated, not unlike the Great Depression years in America, and the people began to panic. Their very survival was at stake. At that point, Joseph was given enormous power. He held their lives, their future, in the palm of his hand. After all, Joseph not only built the granaries, he carried the keys.
What a perfect opportunity for a leader to rip off the public! To stash away some of the money. To give food only to his family or a few of his favorites. With the complete trust that Pharaoh put in him, Joseph wasn’t about to be second-guessed.
After all, Joseph had to live with Joseph. Even more importantly, Joseph had to face his God. So the distribution was done decently and in order. All the money went into the proper account. There was no payola, no kickback. He never set up some kind of offshore account; there was no secret slush fund. Joseph operated with absolute integrity and in doing so guaranteed the survival of the Egyptians, the Canaanites, the Hebrews, and other countries. When he had worked for Potiphar, many years earlier, he evidenced the same trustworthiness as he does now. Over two decades have passed, his role has changed dramatically, but his integrity remained intact…
Integrity keeps your eyes on your own paper during the test. Integrity makes you record and submit only true figures on your expense account. Integrity keeps your personal life pure and straight, regardless of the benefits and personal perks that might come your way through compromise.