Sometimes it seems we've sunk to a new low.
Your daily commute is best compared to a scene from a violent action film: high speed cutoffs, crude gestures and read-my-lips profanity. A disagreement over a call at a Little League ballgame deteriorates into a news-covered brawl. And does a day pass anymore without a corporate accounting scandal?!
In a world where plummeting standards of human interaction, relative values and get-ahead-at-anyone's-cost schemes are normal, Morgan is a voice of much-needed good sense and good faith.
What's missing, he asserts, is integrity.
Integrity is one of those hard to define, even harder to live, realities. Nevertheless, it's a core-defining quality we recognize when we see it in people and sorely miss it when we don’t.
Morgan defines it as the "God-given strength to respond to life in relationship with God instead of reacting to things on our own." This means in the middle and muddle of things, we're to have a congruence of all our "parts" — spirit, body, possessions and actions — to reflect godly values. This Christian ideal refers not just to the Sunday mornings of our lives but to the weekdays of our lives; it's everyday spirituality.
People of Integrity uses the membership vows of the church (commitment to prayer, presence, gifts and service) to explore authentic Christian living. And it's not a spectator sport! Morgan peppers his book with examples that range from To Kill a Mockingbird to Jerry Seinfeld to “The Legend of Bagger Vance” to a man known as “Mr. Carwash” in Birmingham, Alabama.
Morgan's upbeat, gracious book inspires us to recognize the manageable daily challenges of responsive living. To quote bumpersticker philosophy: We must be the change to restore faith in this harried world.
The book may be used by individuals, small groups and whole congregations. Each chapter includes questions and exercises for reflection. A free leader's guide, available as a PDF download, is available here.
