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Key Bible Verse: Is anyone sorry for sin? Does anyone say, "What a terrible thing I have done"? No! All are running down the path of sin as swiftly as a horse rushing into battle! (Jeremiah 8:6). Bonus Reading: Jer. 8:1–7

Kenneth Cook, an Air Force weapons analyst with an exemplary record of achievement, was a highly regarded physicist and mathematician and was listed in American Men of Service. Asked to falsify reports, it so violated his conscience that he refused. If the government couldn't trust his reports, he thought, to what extent could it trust any other reports? So he complained that his commanding officer was distorting reports regarding the ICBM missile defense system.

Cook was fired, declared incompetent, and denied due process of law. He fought to be cleared and reinstated, but he was unsuccessful. He spent his money, including savings, on legal fees and court costs until all his resources were depleted. The hearings were kept private so no one knew what was happening to him. No one came to his rescue.

Reduced to living on a few hundred dollars a month from a pension, Cook walked miles just to save bus fare. His clothes became tattered. A meager diet took its toll, and he began to suffer from malnutrition. Impoverished and embittered, this man who simply wanted truth and justice dropped dead of a heart attack in a department store.

—Luder G. Whitlock Jr. in The Spiritual Quest

My Response: Would my commitment to integrity hold under hostile fire?

Thought to Apply: Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud. —Sophocles (Greek poet, 5th century b.c.)

Adapted from The Spiritual Quest (Baker, 2000) by permission.

Prayer for the Week

Righteous Father, give me the strength of character to live by Your code.

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