Integrity, Airplanes, and Leaders

On July 25th of 2010, an Australian airliner - a Qantas Airbus A380 - made an emergency landing in Manila after part of its fuselage came off at 29,000 feet. Passengers were terrified as they saw flames coming from the engine and airplane part breaking off. The integrity of the plane was was being destroyed.

Dictionary.com defines "integrity" as "the state of being whole, entire"...

Definitely the integrity of the Qantas airplane was lost as its "wholeness" was disintegrating right before the very eyes of its passengers.

Pastor Johnny Hunt writes that one of the ways a leader remains effective in ministry is by living with integrity. He writes:

...integrity is what happens when the tongue in your mouth and the tongue in your shoes are all going the same direction---when what you say and what you do are in perfect alignment. Integrity carries the idea of wholeness, unity, and truthfulness...Part of our high standard as leaders requires living in total integrity of heart.

A great part of having integrity in our lives is keeping our word. Pastor Hunt continues:

If you tell someone you'll do something, do it. If you set a time to meet, be there-right when you said you would. Jesus said to "let your word 'yes' be 'yes' and your 'no' be 'no' (Matt. 5:37). Don't say it unless you mean it. And mean it when you say it.

A truly spiritual leader will have integrity. People will trust and follow him. But one without integrity will scare people away, usually hurt by his careless words or hypocrisy. People will run from him as those passengers on the Qantas plane would have, had they not been 29,000 feet in the air.
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