“The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.”
~ Proverbs 11:3
Hi James and Ellen,
Has your integrity stick ever broken? Has your duplicity stick ever hurt you? Picture a wide river. A wide river in Spanish is sometimes called the Río Grande. River in Spanish is río. Big in Spanish is grande. There is a river in Bolivia called the Río Grande. The Río Grande in Bolivia becomes a wide river during Bolivia’s rainy season and a narrow river during Bolivia’s dry season. Your grandpaa to get from one side of the Río Grande to the other side of the Río Grande had to drive the white C-10 Chevrolet pickup that your grandmaa and grandpaa owned into a small barge like boat. This small barge like boat would be pulled and pushed across the Río Grande by four or more guys. During the rainy season – when the Río Grande was full bank to bank with water, a small boat motor would be used to help the small barge like boat get across the Río Grande. During the dry season – when the Río Grande was only a couple of hundred yards wide versus at least a kilometer wide from all the rain that comes down during Bolivia’s rainy season, your grandpaa would have to drive the pickup that he and your grandmaa owned on an ever-changing, oftentimes muddy rutted route in the Río Grande’s riverbed to where the Río Grande’s water was flowing. Your grandmaa and grandpaa never knew what the Río Grande was going to be like when they got to the river to cross over it in a small barge like boat to the other side of the river. Your grandmaa and grandpaa would need to cross the Río Grande each time that they made the six to eight hour – 180 mile or so trip, over rough gravel and dirt roads and through several streams to the rural resident training center that was located in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez where they were the administrators and each time that they returned to Santa Cruz for supplies or for other reasons. Your grandpaa usually enjoyed crossing from one side of the Río Grande in the small barge like boat that was taking him, your grandmaa and their pickup to the other side of the Río Grande. Your grandpaa think that he probably crossed the Río Grande over thirty times in small barge like boats.
The most stressful moments for your grandpaa when he had to cross the Río Grande was when he had to drive the pickup that he and your grandmaa owned down planks into the small barge like boat that would carry him, your grandmaa and their pickup across the Río Grande and then when he had to drive the pickup out of the small barge like boat on the same planks up unto the bank on the other side of the Río Grande. The small barge like boats that your grandpaa had to drive into to get across the Río Grande were always tied to a couple of thick sticks that had been pounded into the sand at the edge of the Río Grande. Immediately after the first of the three rural resident training center trimesters of thirteen weeks ended in April of 1986, your grandmaa and grandpaa left Concepción to go to Santa Cruz. Your grandmaa and grandpaa were scheduled to leave in about two weeks for the United States to begin a yearlong furlough break. When your grandmaa and grandpaa got to the Río Grande, the Río Grande was way down. To get the pickup that he and your grandmaa owned into the small barge like boat, your grandpaa had to drive the pickup down planks that were set at a very steep angle. As your grandpaa was driving the pickup into the small barge like boat, one of the thick sticks that a rope was tied to to hold the small barge like boat tight against the Río Grande’s bank broke. When the thick stick broke as your grandpaa was driving the pickup into the small barge like boat, the Río Grande’s strong current swung the small barge like boat away from the bank dragging the back of the pickup into the water. The pickup began to sink into the water with the Río Grande’s current trying to carry the pickup down the river. If it had not been for a large truck that suddenly materialized out of nowhere with a driver who was willing to pull the pickup out of the Río Grande without worrying about getting his truck stuck and being given money for . . . and then because your grandmaa and grandpaa did not see the truck leave . . .
The two thick sticks that ropes are tied to to hold small barge like boats to the Río Grande’s bank are like integrity sticks. Integrity is what holds a guy, gal or kid from getting caught up in doing bad things and getting hurt. Integrity is what helps guide a guy, gal or kid to do what is right in life to do. An author of proverbs that are found in the Proverbs Book knew about integrity when he focused on integrity in Proverbs 11. The proverbs writer in verse 3 observes, “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.” Duplicity defines betrayal, disloyalty and deception. The thick stick that broke as your grandpaa was driving the pickup that he and your grandmaa owned into the small barge like boat betrayed or was disloyal or was deceptive in the job that it was expected to do – which was to help hold the small barge like boat tight to the bank as your grandpaa drove the pickup into the small barge like boat. When your grandpaa looked at the broken thick stick after it had let the pickup take an unexpected, unappreciated bath in the Río Grande, your grandpaa could see that the thick stick was badly worn – that the stick should have been replaced with another thick stick. Constant stresses on the life of a guy, gal or kid can really wear and tear on the guy, gal or kid. Unless a guy, gal or kid finds ways to deal with life’s constant stresses, the guy, gal or kid will have his or her life’s integrity stick worm through from all the wear and tear that is on it and that guy, gal or kid then will do things that he or she will regret later having done. Once a life integrity stick snaps, it is too late. The damage has been done when a guy, gal or kid acts out duplicitously. Your grandpaa knows that you will always have strong life integrity sticks if you first plant your integrity sticks firmly in Jesus.
Proverbs 11 (432)