Exhaust Cut-Outs, Drive Modes, and Integrity
Before Race Mode and Sport buttons, there were DIY exhaust cut-outs. In the glory days of early hot rod engineering, cut-outs offered control over the noisiness of a car’s exhaust by letting the driver select from two different exhaust paths. One path incorporated the original, or mostly original, exhaust plumbing, and was the quieter of the two. But by pulling a lever, or flipping a switch connected to an electronically controlled butterfly valve, exhaust flow could be dumped just aft of the headers, letting all that wonderful noise out.
Today, advanced exhaust systems use similar technology to alter the tone and volume of a car’s exhaust, usually at the driver’s whim. It has become quite popular, because – needless to say – the ability to keep a low profile is really useful sometimes.
For us, though, changing our character is known as duplicity. It’s generally not a good thing, even if it seems useful at the time. In the Bible, the account of Daniel describes a constantly changing set of circumstances that must have made duplicity look quite appealing. Judah was exiled to Babylon, and Daniel was taken captive in the king’s palace. It was a good set-up for him: great digs, the best food, a royal education. Nevertheless, Daniel objected to the “unclean” food because a portion of it was offered to idols. He wouldn’t compromise his conscience, even though his objection could have ended his career – or his life.
The term for this is integrity. Its root word is integer, which is a whole number. An integer is either a three or not. No fractions, no almosts or not-quites.
For Daniel, integrity meant acting true to the will of God even during changing circumstances. At times, king Nebuchadnezzar praised and rewarded Daniel’s faithfulness to God. At other times, it was a nuisance to Nebuchadnezzar’s self-sovereignty, and Daniel (along with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) found themselves in hot water – or a hot furnace. Throughout just the first four chapters of the book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar waffled on the issue of self-sovereignty and God-sovereignty enough times to give himself whiplash. He was in awe of God’s power, shown through Daniel and his three buddies, but wasn’t willing to let it supersede his kingly power when the two were in conflict.
As Christ-followers, we get opportunities to practice integrity every day. They say integrity, or good character, is who you are when no one’s looking. Integrity is also who you are when people are looking, joking, suggesting, teasing. With all those changing circumstances, changing our character to succeed – or even just fit in – seems useful. If you’ve tried, though, you know how hard it is to hit a constantly moving target. It’s also exhausting. Plus, living with yourself afterward, and not knowing who you are, introduces its own set of existential crises that cause even more confusion.
It’s hard to keep up with what people want us to be. Even if we change to fit their desires, their desires could change again.
God doesn’t change. His love doesn’t waver, even when we do. The guidelines and instructions he lovingly gives us, in the form of the supremely useful and applicable Bible, do not change. And sometimes, if we’re willing, we get to be part of demonstrating God’s love to someone who really needs it, through our character and consistency. It happened to Daniel, and it could happen to you.
Like when your boss, or a police officer, or your date’s parent, says, “Was that your car making all that noise? It sure doesn’t look like it has race exhaust. So what’s that sound?” That sound is a good opportunity to practice integrity and be the honest person, not the self-sovereign person, you want to be.
