Credit Where Credit Is Due

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Do not steal.

Do not deceive or cheat one another.

Leviticus 19:11

The letter read, “Congratulations! Your article ‘Gold Cross’ will appear in a future issue. A check will be mailed upon publication.”

This would be my third “accepted” article. I had promised myself that I would frame every published story and a copy of its check as reminders that I am a paid writer. More than once, seeing those helped me during times when nothing flowed from my brain to the keyboard.

I searched through my word processing files for “Gold Cross.” I could not find it.

Had the editor changed the title? That would explain why it didn’t sound familiar, but what if I hadn’t written that article? Was it possible the editor had my name mixed up with the true author’s name? My taking credit would not be fair to the original author; besides, it would jeopardize my integrity and the magazine’s. The words of Leviticus 19:11 weighed heavily on my mind.

I wrote to the editor, apologizing and saying that I did not write “Gold Cross,” so I could not take credit for it.

When he did not reply, I wondered whether I had blown it and ruined any future chance of being published with the magazine.

Sometime later, I got the check from the magazine, then an envelope with four contributor copies. Torn between regret and anticipation, suspense and anxiety, I scanned the contents for “Gold Cross” and the byline with my name.

I quickly turned to page 38. As soon as I had read the first sentence, I remembered writing the article. A copy of the check and article now hang on the wall of my study.

Months later I found the missing manuscript on a portable flash drive I use for work. And I’m thankful that since then I have had forty-three more articles accepted by that same editor.

—Al Speegle Jr.

Lord, thank you for your promise that you will withhold no good thing from us if we do what is right. Amen.