The “Let your yes be yes and no be no” in real life.
Two weeks ago I gave a message based on Jesus teaching of being a person who “says what you mean and means what you say!“ I taught on being a person of verbal integrity that people can trust. I used the illustration of the jar full of change as an example of visible trust. Trust takes time to build up….but, can be depleted quickly.
This Monday, my own message and Jesus words came ringing in my ears. If you remember, I taught that we need to be trust worthy people who do what we said we would do and that we should try to never go back on a commitment just because our feelings change or other opportunities come our way.
On Monday, I was offered tickets to the University of Florida Gator at South Carolina Gamecock game. Free tickets….noon kickoff….what could be better? As I was immediately ready to say “YES” to the offer…I remembered a commitment that I had made to serve and help at an all day event on Saturday. My mind began to quickly do the math for the drive time to the game, plus the actual game and how much I would be gone from the commitment I made.
In those quick seconds…I heard: “Let your Yes be yes and your No be No!” I had made a verbal promise to help and serve at this event. There was no way around it….to take the tickets and go to the game would be a lack of integrity, classless and would be the wrong thing to do. Going to that game at USC is actually on my “bucket list” of games and venues I want to really experience. However, at the end of the day…..my word and character is more important. Moreover, expecting people to “understand” and then scramble to fill my spot is very unkind and not fair to them.
As I respectfully declined the tickets…..I was both happy about the choice and disappointed that I had to miss a great opportunity. That is how these choices normally go down!
Also, this week we are also seeing all over TV the reality of the “Trust” empty jar visual i used. Joe Paterno is 84 years old. He has been a highly respected head coach at Penn State University since 1964 . He spent his whole life building a jar full of trust, respect and integrity. That full jar has just lost a large portion of the change that it took years to put in there. This is not the place to debate any of what is going on. However, the truth of what we talked about last Sunday is seen in high definition color splattered all over the TV. What takes time to build ….can be gone with one bad choice.
I know I fail more times than I wish I did…….
We need to all be on guard in small and big things. “Let our Yes be Yes and our No be No!” It matters and we all have a visible “trust” jar that gets filled and depleted with each choice we make.
