Proverbs 10:9
“The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes crooked paths will be found out.”
I was reading an article about another scandal involving a high profile Pastor and his moral failure. The thought crossed my mind, “why does it seem like so many Pastors take crooked paths?” I even began to wonder about myself, everyone else seems to be failing in the morality department, when will it be my turn? As if it were a lottery number that was pulled and you really didn’t have a choice, it just happens. I must admit, in that thought, I felt a little scared about my future.
However, when I read Proverbs 19:10, I realize that since I am in Christ and he is in me, my path is secure, as long as integrity goes with me. I once had a mentor define integrity as: “The things we do when no one else is around.” My path can be secure, but I must make the right choices every step of the way for my path to be secure. One of the ways that I believe people, not just pastors can have the security that Proverbs talks about is by examining motives and making sure that they are in alignment with what God would want His people to have. A verse that I believe will keep our motives in check is…Psalm 19:14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Any other ideas for walking the secure path?

Ecclesiastes 9:4 “Anyone who is among the living has hope—even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!”
I must admit, there are times when hope seems hard to come by. Discouragement can arrive in our lives as fast a phone call or a wrong lane-change on a highway. Life can seem so precarious if we start to focus on how easily life can implode at a moments notice. However, if we look to some stories in scripture, it seems that God does incredible things in the most hopeless of situations. I think of the Roman soldier who thought his son to be dead, took only the words of Jesus with him and he saw his son alive and well. The widow and her son in the middle of drought, preparing to die see the hand of God stretch their food so that they could live.
I think of people who leave Churches, jobs, friends, spouses and children because life got difficult, I wonder if salvation was only a moment away? Maybe God might be telling you to stick it out and trust him with your situation. It may not be flashy, but you just might be in the center of a divine encounter with the almighty God. Hope allows us the privilege to believe in a God who cares about even the hairs on our head, no matter how many or few they might be.
The writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us, if your still reading this,  your alive! Which means there is still hope…