I’ve got this picture on my calendar of a majestic mountain peak sitting atop a layer of clouds.  It is absolutely stunning, inviting me to a place of beauty and greatness that is the essence of all that I would hope my life is about.   Above it are the words: Integrity.  Implicit in the representation is the understanding that the integrity of this grand rock formation is not found in the splendor that we see above the clouds, but rather in the massive foundation that lies just below the water vapor.

Integrity is a difficult thing to live out.  Most of us understand and even applaud its significance while at the same time deploring those political and athletic figures that make the news when their own lack of integrity makes the headlines. Yet in our every day lives, when all everyone sees and offers any feedback on is our apparent splendor above the clouds, integrity can be a very difficult thing to maintain. It becomes easy to cut corners, to offer less than great service, or simply manufacture something that below the clouds is not what it seems. All the while, those flying by our lives at 30,000 feet see our mountain peaks and exclaim how awesome we are.

But there is another type of observer.  He is the one who starts at the base of that great rock, miles down in the valley ... and hikes.  Through dense forests, across cold glacier melt streams and over fallen rock, he works his way up, little by little. It’s painstaking and it’s slow.  He’s not a casual spectator, but rather is intimately embraced by the experience of the entire mountain.  As he reaches the top there is a new found respect for what others have just been photographing.  No longer just an image, the mountain has become a part of his history as well.

More than anything else, I want that understanding of integrity to mold my character.  Not for fear that the sightseeing group might discover the truth, but for those who have been and will be watching me from the ground up … intimately: my children and grandchildren, my friends and my God.  Those are the ones that I hope one day on the top of my mountain that has been my life will take a deep breath, look around, and with a smile embrace my history as a welcome part of theirs as well. 

To the King,

David