If I’ve learned one thing from the Devil it’s that he knows how to make evil look good.  I mean that in both the sense of looking good as in looking cool and acceptable but also in the more devious and spurious way in which he makes evil look like the good; the right thing to do is eat the fruit God forbid us to eat, He didn’t actually say don’t do it; it is good for Jesus to make the rocks into bread, you’re a miracle-maker! and besides, God doesn’t want you to starve, does He?  Satan can quote more Scripture than I can, but the Proverbs have an excellent way of describing this kind of wickedness: crooked.

It’s onomatopoetic in that the word itself sounds like there’s something wrong, but you can’t quite put your finger on it.  The opposite of Integrity isn’t straight-up lying, it’s worse and more devious, it’s crooked.  It’s bent just a little.  Broken is easy to see and to avoid.  A man and his friend were trying to navigate a forest after having been in an auto accident in the wilderness.  After a few hours of wandering around, one of them noticed a familiar tree- the one they’d crashed into!  He was walking with a slight limp and they didn’t realize it was causing them to walk in circles!  His bones were crooked and he didn’t know it!  The wrong path could’ve looked like a road going off a cliff, but this path was crooked, a subtle manipulation whose deception sneaks up on you and before you realize it, you’ve gone nowhere!

Awareness is the key to Integrity… Know the truth; walk in it, His name is Jesus.  He’s given the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth- let us walk in the way of the Spirit and put an end to self-deception and crookedness.  The Spirit is the cast that will straighten your crooked bones and lead you in the way everlasting…

Thoughts from Gregory Pfeifer

What are crooked paths that are common in our culture? In our lives? Post your comments below!

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