| Job 31:6 – Job, who felt wronged in all that he suffered, appeals to the Lord with these words: “Let me be weighed in a just balance, and let God know my integrity!” |
There are many stories of honest men. Some are truer than others.
There is the story, which probably never happened, of a young George Washington cutting down the cherry tree. When asked by his father if he did it, he reportedly said, “I cannot tell a lie. I did it.”
And then there is the story, probably based on fact, that Abraham Lincoln would walk miles to return a single book he borrowed.
Bill Campbell had a story like that.
Campbell owned a restaurant supply and equipment business in San Luis Obispo, California.
One day, while opening bills, he opened an envelope that contained a ten-dollar bill with a note attached. It was from a customer who had purchased a refrigerator from him 25 years before.
The note read, “I was undercharged $10. When the salesman called to inform me, I refused to pay the $10. I have suffered with this all these years. So, here’s the $10. Thanks.”
Campbell’s father had started the business in 1939. He had told him, in passing, of an irate customer who was undercharged and refused to pay. However, he had forgotten. In time, they simply wrote off the $10 and called it even.
It is interesting that the man probably got more of his money’s worth since the refrigerator apparently was still operating.
But Campbell did something different with that $10 bill.
He did not put it in the bank.
Instead, he framed it, and it hung on his wall as a conversation starter.
He has a single regret—that the man did not give his name or return address. “He needs a word of thanks. After all, he did fess up to it.”
Whether we know it or not, what we say and do matters. Each deed is like a feather resting on the pan of a balance beam scale. On one side are the things that are good, positive, and honest. On the other are the hurtful and deceitful. The question of every life is “which side is heaviest?”
Job, who felt wronged in all that he suffered, appeals to the Lord with these words: “Let me be weighed in a just balance, and let God know my integrity!” (Job 31:6)
Let us too be weighed and let it show our integrity.
–Robert G. Taylor
robertgtaylor.com
