Can God remove the cheater from within me?

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by Richard Gazowsky

I would like to really open up my heart and talk about the subject of dishonesty. No, not just outright lying, but that little thing that I have done (and maybe some of you have done) to give us an edge on our competition. This followed me through elementary school, high school, and most of my adult life. I have had a strong desire to be a winner, to be first. But early on in my life, I was faced with devastating news that there were referees in the game of life that I could not see and they were watching the game and if I ever cheated, they would call ‘foul!’ on me.

The first time this ever happened was when I was just 7 or 8 years old. I desperately wanted to get some candy. I felt if I didn’t get this candy, my life could not continue on. One day, I was alone in my parents’ house and I noticed that my father had a safe in his bedroom so I thought I would check it out to see if there was any money laying around. It was a cheap Sears-Roebuck cabinet safe with a loose door on it and to my little cleverness, I took a knife from the kitchen and slipped it through a crack in the door and was able to quarters from the safe. “Wow!” I thought to myself, “I am so clever. Nobody will ever notice!”

Two weeks later, my dad put two and two together. There were loads of candy wrappers in the wastepaper basket in my bedroom and he was missing quarters from his safe. So my father took me to the local prison and showed me where people go that steal. Believe me, this was a freaky experience for a 7 year old! The guys in the prison must have known I was coming, because they yelled and screamed at me the entire time I walked down the hallway. I am happy to say, in effect, that experience ended most of my criminal career.

The truth is, it did not end my internal corruption. I knew I was a smart kid and that I could think fast and this was boistered by a strong ego. I found out that I could push my way into an advantageous position in most situations. To ease my conscious, I just said it was my business acumen and my forcefulness for success. Even though I was a strong Christian and believed in serving God completely, this little edge of personality and ego was always there. Many times, I would hide this under the cloak of faith. I mean, doesn’t the Bible say that Abraham called things that were not as though they were? (Romans 4:17) Obviously, my use of exaggeration to give me an edge was not an act of faith, but an act of ego.

Now, there also is another side to the story. They’re the guys who always talk the facts, but never have any faith. They never take any risk. They just sit around complaining about everyone who does. I would rather die than become one of them. The desire to become first in the game of life is so strong in me that it pounds through my system every moment of every day. But at the same time, I realize that you can run a race and still be disqualified at the end of the race.

My son and I had a long conversation on this as we discussed some of the sports figures taking steroids and how young men can get access to these steroids so easily. The next thing they know, they have better toned muscles than those that have labored for years. After our discussion, we both came to the conclusion that usually you can get away with cheating if you are not first place. The trouble is, when you are the #1 homerun king, now every other guy that has been cheating is going to examine every part of your life with a microscope until they can disqualify you. A friend of mine paints race cars and as we were going through different racing teams that were preparing for the race, I noticed how most of the cars were using illegal fuel in their car. When I commented to my friend about the cheating, he said, “Yeah, each one of them are trying to get an edge. The trouble is that none of them want to come in first place because when you come in first place, your car is instantly torn apart and is inspected and the cash money for second, third and fourth places is good enough to sustain them.” This is crazy! What a life, living in the shadow of winning and accepting failure because you have to cheat to have a mediocre life!

It was twenty five years ago since I had that conversation with my friend and it was at that point that I decided that I was going to have to get all of the cheating out of me. By this time I knew that God was the referee and He sees everything. There is not one little secret that He does not know about. So with that thought in mind, I began to publically confessing my faults and weaknesses to those who work for me and were under my authority. This has been a long process, but it has brought me to a very simple conclusion, which I’m going to try to explain. I hope this makes sense to you.

The game of life is only played by the rules that God has set up. If you cheat, He will not expose you but instead, He will wait for the finish line and then announce to you that you have been running for nothing but were disqualified at the very beginning. Believe me, there are some televangelist, politician or business tycoon you could talk to that will verify this basic truth.

Secondly, since God controls the game, you’ve got to ask God what role you are to play in the game. If you cheat on this aspect, please refer back to my first point. A key factor in asking God is that you’ve got to be true and accurate to what God says. You can’t fudge God’s call. For example, I am in the movie industry and the vast majority of young men and women who come to me with a call to be in the movies all say that they are called to be a director of film. Somewhere, a large percentage of them misheard and cheated on that call of God. One young man, who was so adamant that he was called to be a director, felt he could not do any other task. He could not run a camera, did not know what a lens was, etc. Now, let me explain something to you. If a guy says he wants to be a cook but does not know what a pot or pan is, he’s cheating and is trying to get to the head of the line by sheer ego. This can be the case with so many and has been the case with myself.

The third point is that God is incredibly benevolent when it comes to us getting personal instruction. He will take time to answer the most miniscule question and for this reason, getting ahead in the game of life is actually doable. It just requires you to be honest and, hopefully, egoless. Humility is extremely important because the Father in Heaven will use multiple layers of humbling situations to prepare you for the management position that He is going to promote you to. This is extremely important because if you are faithful in little, He then can make you ruler over much.

So let me come to the conclusion of this whole matter. If you want to be a successful business man or woman, quit cheating and obey God’s word to you. Do not add to it, do not take away from it but JUST DO IT. When you do it, do not think about the risk, JUST DO IT. And lastly, give the glory to God. Give the credit away. Lose your reputation and I promise you, God will give you a name.

Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

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