Page 2 of 2For many people (myself included), a life that matters seems to mean important meetings with important people making important decisions. However, this is not the life to which God calls many of us. To be sure, there are some who are called by God to do important things with integrity, but many Christians have mistakenly equated goodness with greatness. And that can lead to a life or ministry where someone knows all the right things to say, do, or write to gain a following, but everyday life isn't really impacted.
Let me be clear: If you're in charge of a ministry or a small group, or in any kind of leadership for that matter, but everyone around you thinks you're a jerk, you're not living with integrity. God asks nothing more of us than to live out the fruit of his Spirit. Or in the words of Philippians 4:8, a life consumed with thinking (and, presumably, acting) on "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable."
Obviously, God can use broken people and broken ministries however he sees fit. People living with no integrity can still be used by God for incredible things—even church leaders who have fallen the farthest and hardest have likely still told someone the truth of God. But that doesn't let us off the hook. God doesn't care how "big" or "small" our lives are, only that we are living lives that are filled with the integrity he commands. It doesn't matter to God if you're a famous person or if the only people who have heard of you are in your community. What matters to God is that you're living with integrity to the commands he has given you. That might mean you become a great leader with a huge following, or it might mean you live a quiet life being the best wife, father, or employee you can possibly be.
So how can we live a life of integrity? We must accept God's call to live in his will and walk in the footsteps of Christ. We must live the kind of life that Jesus lived, even if no one is watching you. We must obey the command of James 1:22: "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." It's simple, and it's difficult. And it's all that God asks.
Ryan Hamm is a writer living in Orlando, FL, where he lives with his wife, spends as much time at Disney World as you would expect, and is at work on his first book. You can find him on Twitter @RyanECHamm.
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