I read an article recently on the subject of employees regularly pilfering (stealing in small amounts) office supplies for personal use. About 25% of working adults ages 18 to 29 have admitted to doing it. On top of that, most of those who openly admit to doing it say they feel fine about it, as if these “free” office supplies are some kind of unofficial benefit of working at a company. And it doesn’t come without consequences: the estimated cost to U.S. businesses for the disappearance of office supplies is about $52 billion per year!
Many of us may not be guilty of doing this (since most of us don’t work at a company yet), but we certainly do our share of pilfering. I’d guess that the majority of us have illegally downloaded at least one song if not many. All of us would agree that stealing shoes or clothes from a store is wrong, yet somehow we make a moral exception for a song that could be purchased for a measly $1 using a program like iTunes.
Here’s the question for us: Is our integrity worth only $1?
Everyone seems to be okay with stealing in small amounts because they think it doesn’t really hurt anyone. But it does. It hurts those who have worked hard to produce these songs. It hurts those who have studied hard to program that software. It hurts us because it weakens our moral fiber and leads to other seemingly “harmless” activity. But ultimately, it hurts God because it is sin and it is wrong.
Let’s show the world that as Christ followers, our integrity is priceless.
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