The Cost of Obedience
It's funny how over the last year (or two or three), whenever I'm faced with a decision where I have to choose between obedience to my parents or pursuing what I believe is God's plan for my life, in my mind, I always resort back to that verse in the Bible where it says, "Obedience is better than sacrifice." The opposite of obedience being rebellion in that I'm following my sense of reason instead of choosing to remain within the authority of my parents and elders, whoever they may be. But lately though, I've really been questioning how far obedience…
It is an irony. The word ‘Satyam’ means truth, but the IT company occupied the front pages of newspapers and prime time of television news channels for ‘asatyam’, which means untruth or false or fraud. The Chief of Satyam, B. Ramalinga Raju confessed that he doctored the balance sheets to a tune of about Rs. 7000 crore to keep his company’s reputation, client attraction and stock rates at the highest level for several years. The country's fourth largest IT Company with 53000 employees - after TCS, Infosys and Wipro and ahead of HCL - was for several years cooking its books by inflating revenues and profits. It was a creative, innovative accounting fraud. This pulled the stock market down and it would affect more in the coming days. 
With the start of the New Year many people are evaluating their lives, including many ministers and leaders who are making vows and resolutions to the Lord. In light of all the scandals in the church and the intense scrutiny all leaders in society are presently under, my proposal is that one of the primary vows leaders make should be to walk in integrity. What is integrity? Integrity is basically wholeness or perfect condition; one root word of “integrity” means “soundness, wholeness;” also the root word “integer” means “whole,” that is to say, it has to do with a person living a simple life in which their public and private lives are the same, because their public persona lines up with their interior life and motivation.
We await the New Year. We hope for the best for we truly don’t know what it holds for us. Sadly, we are denied that divine privilege and perspective . . . .As humans, we must become better – in our grasp of reality, truth, love, hope, freedom. The Year 2009 seems like the worst of times. The Credit Crunch, Climate change, Job Loss and War are issues that need immediate affirmative action. But then, we must truly become human to give our remedial measures a human touch (identity, responsibility, relationality and destiny).
The year 2008 is done. Never to come back. The clock has ticked. The bells have rung. Time flies even before you can think of it! Just when you thought you had time, a year is gone. “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day” wrote William Shakespeare years ago. Maybe you struggled a lot in the past year. There was debt. There was accident. There was illness. There was disappointment. There was a lot that went wrong. Now here you are peeking into 2009. You are hoping against hope for something new this year. You see, hope is what kept many Jewish prisoners alive in the Nazi camps. Many died for simply lack of hope.
We are going to enter a New Year - 2009. There are elaborate arrangements in various parts of the world to mark this occasion. Every new day brings us closer to eternity. Either the Lord’s coming is getting ahead by a day or our death. Therefore, it is essential to anticipate the future with serenity. This is possible, only by rescheduling our lives according to Luke 12: 35-43. There are three principles written in that. They are Waiting, Watching and Working. Those who are familiar with the Internet can understand the significance of www.