The second character challenge is the trait of HONESTY. Honesty requires us to communicate with clarity and precision in order to represent the truth at all times. Even though the truth may be difficult, we are challenged to do the right thing regardless of circumstance. We all possess a basic understanding of what the truth is or at least, what the truth is supposed to be, but for the purpose of this reflection, I believe it is important to think about honesty as an effort to first look within ourselves and be honest about our own abilities before we begin to represent truth to others. Basically, the challenge is to not be a hypocrite. Thankfully, I have the freedom to choose to accept or not accept as truth whatever you decide you want to tell me. Because of this freedom, one of the greatest debates we have going on right now in our communities is to what level of control over my actions a society has no matter how I align my thoughts. These are great debates (debates being the key word) to have and should always be had and later on when the discussion on FREEDOM come up, we can explore this topic a bit more. For now though, the far too common issue for me is when people enter debates without having their own houses in order. There is far too much “do as I say,” and not nearly enough “do as I do.”
In the ancient story of The Emperor’s Seed, an emperor was set to retire soon and was unsure on who should succeed him on the throne. He decided to call all of the young villagers to his palace and propose a test. Each child would be given a seed and sent home to plant and water the seed. The children would return with what they had grown in one year and at that time, the emperor would judge accordingly and choose a successor.
A young boy in the village, Ling was one of these children and did just as he was instructed. However, Ling became frustrated after several weeks went by and nothing was happening with his seed. Even more troubling for Ling was that other kids were beginning to talk about their own seeds and the successes they were having, yet, despite dutifully following every rule of gardening, Ling’s seed was still struggling.
After a year had passed, all of the children returned to the palace with their product. There were lots of big plants and colorful plants and fruited plants and lush plants and it was obvious all of the children had done very well with the seeds they had been given, with the exception of Ling. Ling brought an empty pot to the emperor because he was unable to grow anything.
At first, Ling didn’t even want to bring his empty pot to the emperor. For most of a year he had heard the other kids talk about him behind his back and he knew showing up with an empty pot would be embarrassing and that people would assume that he was just lazy or even worse, incompetent! However, he knew he had cared for the seed to the best of his ability and both he and his mom agreed that he needed to be honest about what had happened and show up anyway.
Maybe by now you can probably guess what happened to Ling. Despite being the only child with an empty pot, Ling was selected to be the next emperor! How can this be?!? As it had turned out, the emperor had boiled all the seeds before hand thus making it impossible to grow anything. Why then were so many children able to grow so many beautiful plants with a boiled, infertile seed? You know the answer. The other children were all being liars and even worse, hypocrites by pointing out the flaws in others while ignoring their own dishonesty.
In this story, Ling was surrounded by hypocrites. He did not know this at the time so I’m sure the temptation to switch out his seed for a different one crossed his mind a time or two. We have all been in Ling’s shoes at some point. We have all perhaps made a decision that was dishonest to ourselves. We may have made a decision that although seemed popular was not right or we have made a decision that although right, was not very popular. Ling chose to be right, which to his peers made him not very popular. Holding a position contrary to the masses, even though you did everything by the book, can be an uncomfortable experience, and usually leads people to conform rather than experience discomfort. The psychology of this conformity has been explored through many different experiments over time. There is no harm in changing a position based on truth and honesty – personal growth is great thing. Unfortunately, far too many people spend too much time switching seeds instead of just doing the right and honest thing.
Judging others is one one thing, but judging others on the same standard that you yourself have violated is especially egregious. If honesty is about representing truth at all times, then the opposite of honesty is hypocrisy – demanding truth from others but not from yourself. Social media sites are keenly aware there are no rules requiring people be truthful about themselves before commenting on the situations of others because if that were the case, most social media sites would be out of business.
Stryper built their entire career on an uncomfortable contradiction. They wrere a heavy metal band with an unapologetic Christian message playing venues full of people who weren’t expecting either. They got laughed at, dismissed, and written off by both sides. Their 1984 song Honestly is a straightforward plea for truth in a relationship, but the deeper message is the same one Ling carried into that throne room with an empty pot: I’m showing up as I actually am, even when it costs me something. That’s not weakness. That’s the hardest version of honesty there is: the kind that doesn’t swap out the seed just because everyone else did.
#ucandewitt 