Pastors are constantly falling, it seems. Every week or month there is a new story about a pastor or church leader who has significant moral failures, whether it is financial dishonesty, substance abuse, marital infidelity, etc.
As people, we all have responsibilities. We are all responsible for things that can get us into trouble. County clerks handle millions of dollars per year- the temptation to embezzle is very high. During my teenage years, several county clerks (in a row) in the city I grew up in were arrested for embezzlement. My youth minister left his wife and married the church secretary when I was in high school. Several years ago, there was a financial scandal at Bluegrass Airport where employees were caught misusing more than $200k of their expense accounts on personal things.
How does this happen? It's easy- we are human. Temptation is the norm. That's not the question to ask. The question to ask is- how do we keep from falling?
How do we avoid the horrific embarrassment to ourselves and our families? How do we avoid the destruction of our lives, our careers, our reputations, and ultimately our faith? Faced with such temptation, how do we walk the straight and narrow for the entirety of our lifetimes?
I was sitting in my office recording the offering from the past Sunday. We receive offerings online, through checks, and through cash. All of it goes into the weekly offering to support the church and the ministries we engage in. Several thousand dollars pass through the church every week. I was logging in checks and cash into our accounting software, and then something happened.
A penny fell on the floor.
Our children's ministry takes up an offering, giving the kids a chance to learn generosity and give to support their church. It's usually coins, and it's awesome. The kids are giving what they can. Beautiful thing.
My office has hardwood floors that closely resemble the color of a penny. It's dark in my office and to find a penny in a dark office on a penny-colored hardwood floor would be a pain. I'd have to get out of my chair, get down underneath my desk, and search for it.
Immediately the rationalization began in my mind. "It's just a penny." "It's not worth the effort." "Who needs a penny?"
Sound familiar?
"It's just a penny."
"It's just a friendly flirting text."
"It's just a one-time expense on my account. Nothing major."
"It's just dinner. It's not like it's a date. My wife wouldn't care."
"It's just a video. It's not like I'm committing adultery."
I realized something. Carelessness with one penny would become carelessness with one dollar. Carelessness with one penny, so insignificant to the overall financial picture, would breach the strong wall I've built against the temptation I face every day as a pastor.
I truly believe it's what we do with the pennies in life that determines whether or not we finish strong. Just like one dandelion in the yard will soon take over the entire yard, disregarding one penny can change my entire attitude towards accountability.
The penny showed me that temptation must be dealt with in the "it's not such a big deal" stage. It's much easier to defeat when it is in its infant stages. The book of James tells us that we are dragged away by sin and enticed when desire turns to temptation which turns to sin which leads to death. That process is much more difficult to overcome when it is full grown.
What are the "pennies" in your life?
I believe we must be vigilant for the beginnings of temptation. Each desire we have is like a single plague bacteria. If we allow even a single plague bacteria into our bodies, it won't be long before we have a full-blown septic infection. But we look at the bacteria, a microscopic organism, and say, "Eh. It's just one bacteria. Not a big deal."
Yes it is.
Instead of waiting until we are knee-deep in sin, we need to be vigilant about the pennies. If we handle the pennies, we'll never have to worry about the dollars. If we handle the one dandelion, we won't have to worry about it taking over the yard. If we handle the desires, we'll never have to worry about the sins.
Be vigilant about the pennies.
Don't allow even a crack in the wall of your integrity.
Otherwise, we will be like the many leaders who don't finish strong, taken down by something that started out as a penny. No big deal. It's just a penny. It's just a text. It's just a video. It's just a meeting, not like it's a date or anything. It's just for fun. It's no big deal. Those people are shell-shocked, wondering how they could have gotten in so deep so quickly.
Every addict I know wishes they would have dealt with the penny instead of the addiction. If they would have dealt with their drug use when it was still a penny, they wouldn't have had to deal with it when it became the hundred-dollar bill of full-blown addiction. Why don't we deal with things we perceive to be pennies?
Very simple- the penny wasn't worth getting out of the chair and searching for. It was just a penny, no need to deal with it.
Be ruthless with the pennies. With the little things. Be utterly ruthless in dealing with the small temptations. Take care of them when they are small, and you won't have to fix them when they are big and have caused catastrophic damage to your life, your faith, your marriage, your reputation, your financial situation, and your family.
Every one of us has things in our lives that we claim are no big deal. That we can handle it. That no one will ever know. Newsflash- yes they will. Everything will be revealed. How many times do we have to see a leader fall before we realize that's exactly what they were saying right before everyone found out?
Tackle them. Stop rationalizing them away. In "The Screwtape Letters," CS Lewis points out that Satan is just as pleased with a small little white lie as he is with murder, provided that both take us away from God. Satan is just as pleased with the pennies as he is with the hundred dollar bills, provided that we lapse in our integrity and we move away from God.
I truly believe that my attitude towards that penny says more about my integrity than my attitude towards a hundred dollar bill. The hundred dollar bill has consequences- everyone looks after that. The penny? It has little monetary value, and therefore not many people care. If I look at a hundred-dollar bill differently than a penny, it means that I have adopted the world's value system instead of living by the integrity that God calls me to live by. How I treat the pennies says more about me than anything else. We aren't called to value what the world values. We are called to live with integrity.
Your attitude towards the pennies, the insignificant things, the "no big deals" in life, say more about your value system than anything else. Take the pennies seriously, because God takes them seriously.
Go after the pennies. Go after them consistently. Refuse to compromise on the little things, and you'll never have to worry about the big things. Finish strong!
As people, we all have responsibilities. We are all responsible for things that can get us into trouble. County clerks handle millions of dollars per year- the temptation to embezzle is very high. During my teenage years, several county clerks (in a row) in the city I grew up in were arrested for embezzlement. My youth minister left his wife and married the church secretary when I was in high school. Several years ago, there was a financial scandal at Bluegrass Airport where employees were caught misusing more than $200k of their expense accounts on personal things.
How does this happen? It's easy- we are human. Temptation is the norm. That's not the question to ask. The question to ask is- how do we keep from falling?
How do we avoid the horrific embarrassment to ourselves and our families? How do we avoid the destruction of our lives, our careers, our reputations, and ultimately our faith? Faced with such temptation, how do we walk the straight and narrow for the entirety of our lifetimes?
I was sitting in my office recording the offering from the past Sunday. We receive offerings online, through checks, and through cash. All of it goes into the weekly offering to support the church and the ministries we engage in. Several thousand dollars pass through the church every week. I was logging in checks and cash into our accounting software, and then something happened.
A penny fell on the floor.
Our children's ministry takes up an offering, giving the kids a chance to learn generosity and give to support their church. It's usually coins, and it's awesome. The kids are giving what they can. Beautiful thing.
My office has hardwood floors that closely resemble the color of a penny. It's dark in my office and to find a penny in a dark office on a penny-colored hardwood floor would be a pain. I'd have to get out of my chair, get down underneath my desk, and search for it.
Immediately the rationalization began in my mind. "It's just a penny." "It's not worth the effort." "Who needs a penny?"
Sound familiar?
"It's just a penny."
"It's just a friendly flirting text."
"It's just a one-time expense on my account. Nothing major."
"It's just dinner. It's not like it's a date. My wife wouldn't care."
"It's just a video. It's not like I'm committing adultery."
I realized something. Carelessness with one penny would become carelessness with one dollar. Carelessness with one penny, so insignificant to the overall financial picture, would breach the strong wall I've built against the temptation I face every day as a pastor.
I truly believe it's what we do with the pennies in life that determines whether or not we finish strong. Just like one dandelion in the yard will soon take over the entire yard, disregarding one penny can change my entire attitude towards accountability.
The penny showed me that temptation must be dealt with in the "it's not such a big deal" stage. It's much easier to defeat when it is in its infant stages. The book of James tells us that we are dragged away by sin and enticed when desire turns to temptation which turns to sin which leads to death. That process is much more difficult to overcome when it is full grown.
What are the "pennies" in your life?
I believe we must be vigilant for the beginnings of temptation. Each desire we have is like a single plague bacteria. If we allow even a single plague bacteria into our bodies, it won't be long before we have a full-blown septic infection. But we look at the bacteria, a microscopic organism, and say, "Eh. It's just one bacteria. Not a big deal."
Yes it is.
Instead of waiting until we are knee-deep in sin, we need to be vigilant about the pennies. If we handle the pennies, we'll never have to worry about the dollars. If we handle the one dandelion, we won't have to worry about it taking over the yard. If we handle the desires, we'll never have to worry about the sins.
Be vigilant about the pennies.
Don't allow even a crack in the wall of your integrity.
Otherwise, we will be like the many leaders who don't finish strong, taken down by something that started out as a penny. No big deal. It's just a penny. It's just a text. It's just a video. It's just a meeting, not like it's a date or anything. It's just for fun. It's no big deal. Those people are shell-shocked, wondering how they could have gotten in so deep so quickly.
Every addict I know wishes they would have dealt with the penny instead of the addiction. If they would have dealt with their drug use when it was still a penny, they wouldn't have had to deal with it when it became the hundred-dollar bill of full-blown addiction. Why don't we deal with things we perceive to be pennies?
Very simple- the penny wasn't worth getting out of the chair and searching for. It was just a penny, no need to deal with it.
Be ruthless with the pennies. With the little things. Be utterly ruthless in dealing with the small temptations. Take care of them when they are small, and you won't have to fix them when they are big and have caused catastrophic damage to your life, your faith, your marriage, your reputation, your financial situation, and your family.
Every one of us has things in our lives that we claim are no big deal. That we can handle it. That no one will ever know. Newsflash- yes they will. Everything will be revealed. How many times do we have to see a leader fall before we realize that's exactly what they were saying right before everyone found out?
Tackle them. Stop rationalizing them away. In "The Screwtape Letters," CS Lewis points out that Satan is just as pleased with a small little white lie as he is with murder, provided that both take us away from God. Satan is just as pleased with the pennies as he is with the hundred dollar bills, provided that we lapse in our integrity and we move away from God.
I truly believe that my attitude towards that penny says more about my integrity than my attitude towards a hundred dollar bill. The hundred dollar bill has consequences- everyone looks after that. The penny? It has little monetary value, and therefore not many people care. If I look at a hundred-dollar bill differently than a penny, it means that I have adopted the world's value system instead of living by the integrity that God calls me to live by. How I treat the pennies says more about me than anything else. We aren't called to value what the world values. We are called to live with integrity.
Your attitude towards the pennies, the insignificant things, the "no big deals" in life, say more about your value system than anything else. Take the pennies seriously, because God takes them seriously.
Go after the pennies. Go after them consistently. Refuse to compromise on the little things, and you'll never have to worry about the big things. Finish strong!
