Cliff Barrows pointed out that the Bible suggests integrity may
be the commodity in shortest supply. Psalm 12:1 laments, “Help,
Lord, for the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from
among men.” People of honor, people of their word, people who
try to live in purity of mind and heart—such individuals stand
out, if only because of their relative scarcity.
How do we build the will and the strength of character to con-
front and overcome temptations? How can we be just as savvy
about protecting ourselves from ourselves as we are about lead-
ing others? Obviously, the stakes are high.
Never Underestimate a “Small Temptation”
It’s easy to wink at the word temptation, to flirt with extra-
marital sex, or to shade the truth just a little, or to arrange cor-
porate finances for just a little personal benefit. It’s easy to believe
the consequences of playing a little loose with temptations will be
minor.
However, consider the case of some amateur Massachusetts
tuna fishermen. Talk about underestimating the consequences! In
1999, for the first time in forty-seven years, the tuna were run-
ning only thirty miles off Cape Cod. And they were biting! You
didn’t have to be a professional to catch them; all you needed was
a sharp hook and some bait. And the rewards for doing so were
substantial. Rumor had it that Japanese buyers were willing to
pay $50,000 for a large blue fin. As a result, many ignored Coast
Guard warnings and headed out to sea in small boats. What these
new fishermen didn’t realize was that
the problem is not catching a tuna—the
problem comes after they’re caught.
On September 23, the Christi Anne,
a nineteen-foot boat, capsized while
doing battle with a tuna. That same day
the twenty-seven-foot boat Basic Instinct
suffered the same fate, while Official Business, a twenty-eight-
footer, was swamped after it hooked onto a six-hundred-pound
tuna. The tuna pulled it underwater.
Confronting TemptationsReputations are fragile. They
must be handled with care
like a valuable vase that if
dropped can never quite be
put together again.
BILL POLLARD