Integrity

I’m trying something new. Since Facebook seems intent on banning me, I’m going to play around with using this blog for more than I was before. So today I’m going to talk about Marine Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller getting court martialed for complaining about the chain of command. The story from this article.

Well, he is getting off lucky with a special court martial. They were going to give me a general court martial for being late to work. Even though I handed them a stack of PTSD diagnoses. You just don’t impugn the chain of command. They are like Communist China. Or Pharisee politicians. Rich religious people. You name it. The powerful will not be impugned. President Trump was more impugned than anyone I’ve ever seen. And President Biden, I just can’t believe how much that guy is getting thrashed by the right. I mean, the guy never should have been President, but I can’t believe how much they thrash him. And these are supposedly the most powerful dudes in the world.

To me, that’s one of the most fundamental markers of divine character. Shame and pride are where it all went wrong. Not being able to be criticised is a marker for weakness.

I remember once I called heaven and earth as witnesses against God. That’s a line from the Torah. God calls heaven and earth as witnesses against Israel in the Torah. Because he can do that. He is God. He is pretty squared away, to use a military term. Israel, well, kinda sucked a lot of the time. So I was in the middle of some trial. When am I not? But I was all upset about something. Couldn’t get an Airbnb and was running out of money paying for deposits. Was getting to the point where I wasn’t going to be able to afford another attempt to rent something. And I was desperate. Because I hadn’t discovered Booking.com or HomeAway or any of the billion other apps that would have done what I needed. Yup. Total genius on my end. But, my point was, I was desperate. And in desperation, I just laid it out for the Almighty. You know. Because sometimes he just needs to be put in his place, apparently. So, I told him I wasn’t going to get anywhere if he wasn’t going to help me, because sure as hell nobody on earth was going to help me. And in my tearful rant, I called heaven and earth against him. “I call heaven and earth against you! You said you would help me!” Because I’m Jonathan Bailey, right? I get to do that to my creator. I get to do that to perfect, infinite love. Right?

And he got me the Airbnb. And I have a roof over my head.

If he hadn’t been able to take criticism, he never would have saved me. If he hadn’t been able to see past my flaws and my desperation, he never would have saved me.

So this Lieutenant Colonel is going to lose his career. But you can help him keep his honor. You can do this by knowing where justice is, and where it isn’t. And you can do what is right. Especially when unjust authorities and group cultures don’t want you to. When you do this, you show the world that the good that is within you doesn’t come from the world.

Integrity. It’s one of the proofs that we aren’t just making up the world. But rather we are characters in a story written from beyond. Because sometimes the author of the story writes things into us that just don’t come from around here.