loyalty

Approaching my 64th birthday, I have come to realize what is my highest value, my core commitment.

It is this, simply this, only this: LOYALTY.

That would make me worthy to be a Knight of the Round Table or, on another level, a "made man" of the Mafia. Those two possibilities reflect light from two very different directions. Yet I know this: What I Value Most In Life = LOYALTY.

I have always told people who worked 'for/with' me that I would be as loyal to them as they were to me and I would 'have their back' no matter what, if they gave me their loyality.

(Here is a scary thing: I value Loyalty more than Truth. If you are loyal to me, I will be loyal to you, even when you LIE. There is something dangerous about that promise, that I know. But it is a promise I make and will keep. In response, when I 'lie', I expect loyalty to overcome your commitment to 'truth' and that you will 'loyal' to me even when I lie.)

Here's where the 'pondering' comes in. God's love, it seems to me, is a lot like that. God will love us...be loyal to us...even when we lie and screw up.

God love us in a loyal way. God will put up with our nonsense and un-truth and out-and-out lack on anything that can remotely be considered 'integrity', so long as we are 'loyal'. All that nonsense and un-truth and lack of integrity is, gosh, I think "who we are". And God loves us anyway.

I'm loyal to my friend when they are really off the chart messing up.

I'm loyal to my wife when I don't agree at all about what she wants to do and does even though I disagree.

I'm loyal to my children when they don't live their lives the way I would live them.

So, what else is new?

Loyalty is my highest value. Highest of all. Even more than Truth.

Ponder that and what it says about me. And ponder your highest value and how, if you can find a way, it is superior to Loyalty.

Go figure that out and let me know.