A Stand Up Guy

Last week I attended a funeral at the Los Angeles Police Academy. The deceased was a 35-year veteran of the LAPD, having served as a detective during the late sixties and seventies. During the funeral, his former partner, fellow officers and various lawyers and judges shared stories of working side by side with him. Over and over they used the same words to describe him: He was a "stand up guy." Naturally, this made me wonder about the meaning of the term. Of course I've heard the phrase used before, but in the context of a decorated police officer who had been touched by any number of violent and horrible crimes, I began to define my terms. Likewise, his generation would have a different idea than would mine. Later, I posed the question to my church members..."From your experience, what character traits are required to identify someone as a stand up guy?" These are some of the responses I received:

1. A person that is honest and straightforward; a person of good character not easily swayed by popularity; someone who has your back when the going gets rough; someone who will tell it like it is.
2. One who puts the welfare of church, family, friends and others above their own. One who faces fear, danger or adversity with personal courage. One who does what's right, legally and morally.
3. Someone who is always there for someone in need and is always there to give a helping hand without thinking of the consequences; a person who will tell you the truth no matter what.
4. Someone who, through good times and bad, leads their lives with moral correctness and conviction. A person who doesn't stand by and watch when something bad is happening but takes action to defend the weaker party. A stand up person is balanced and fair, kind, generous, firm, and loyal. For me, a stand up person constantly walks in someone else's shoes, takes the time to really appreciate how other people feel and then lives his life always willing to stand up and do right.

It's obvious that we can recognize a stand up guy when we see one. For me, the whole idea of "stand up" carries with it the implication that he will rise to any occassion. Certainly he would defend his friends and help in anyway possible. But even more, this person would do what was RIGHT. He would tell his friends what they needed to hear, not just what they wanted to hear. He would not do something if it would better serve those involved. And most of all, as his friend, you would accept that from him whereas you wouldn't let others get away with it.

As a Christian, I know that there are scriptural principals involved...things such as grace, mercy and forgiveness. But from a simple human standpoint, what about just doing right? What about speaking truth? I fear that there are not as many stand up guys anymore simply because we have become a society that doesn't want to hear truth. We don't want to do what is right because it requires too much effort. In turn, we accept less from those who are closest...those who might remind us how very far we've removed ourselves from a once-common characteristic.

In front of a lost world that defines being a "Christian" in the most abstract of ways, what better testimony could a person have than to come to the end of life and have his buddies simply say: He was a stand up guy.