Thoughts On Integrity

I believe our trueness as men has been hijacked a bit by external morality.
   If we are always functioning under the scrutiny of our culture's moral compass, then we are (reluctantly) bound and burdened by its idea of integrity, and not our own.  That's not to say that a culture even represents morality effectively,  but when we grow up believing that moral integrity is an external pressure.. then the culture's version is the only one we know or feel obliged to abide by.  
 Integrity is such a defining attribute of a man,  and yet it often only exists as an exterior motive...  something foreign, pressing coldly from the outside of us - never agreed to personally.    I believe when we are the origin of our own integrity / morality..  then it becomes something far more impressive -  it drives our attitude, it is malleable and open-ended.
 Self-driven integrity is us..  it cannot be undermined, rebelled against, escaped, wriggled away from - we are never free from it;  but neither are we burdened by its cumbersomeness or hijacked by its rigidity.     Our integrity should reverberate along the truest most admirable threads of our being.     Refining and agreeing to a personal morality should only deepen our sovereignty.   
Determining what self-driven integrity looks like:   we should hold dear the extraordinariness of being human!  Never settling for a lesser version of ourselves..   respecting and adoring our role on this delicious earth as human beings.   



Andrew Tipton