Resolving to not be a hypocrite means facing our hypocrisy, especially if you’re a leader of any kind. I don’t know how other pastors and counsellors go, but I find the Holy Spirit is always counselling me as I counsel others — “See that, there? Listen up, it’s in you too,” I so often hear the Spirit say. Whether the wrongdoing is living and active in me is a moot point. It’s the potential that it might rise in me, that it’s latent in me; that’s the point.
I know God is always raising questions of my hypocrisy as a husband and as a father — in those relationships where we’re all ‘normal’ until you get to know us. How many pastors and counsellors are ‘less than they ought to be’ simply because they’re professionals. Professionalism is possibly the biggest threat all helping professionals face, especially if we aspire to LIVE the integrity we espouse to others — as we should, and as society expects it of us.
The idea of integrity — back of stage aligning with front of stage — is absolutely crucial to maintaining the fabric of trust society needs to have with its leaders. So it’s not a nice-to-have. People who have power who work with vulnerable people must have integrity. There is little or no room for hypocrisy. And the only way of doing that — given that we’re all hypocrites! — is to continually face our hypocrisy. That takes honesty and it manifests in humility.
If only we resolved to not be hypocrites by facing our hypocrisy, we would then exhibit integrity, which means that the foibles that are there in our back of stage environment would vulnerably be more worn on the sleeve (our front of stage) and not denied or covered over. The most redeeming feature in any leader is their honesty.
Photo by Benjamin Rascoe on Unsplash
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