News broke this week that 11 million Volkswagen vehicles worldwide were fitted with the software designed to trick emissions testing equipment. A few months ago during the summer, NFL fans were inundated with Deflate-gate—a controversy over the illegal deflation of footballs in the 2015 AFC Championship Game. In the spring of this year, Major League Baseball’s St. Louis Cardinals were caught hacking into the Houston Astro’s computer network, and now the FBI is investigating.

In elementary school, yours truly had a problem with cheating. Our private school didn’t have vending machines, so I (along with a buddy) would smuggle candy into school. Since we had a captive market, we sold Nestle Crunches, Tootsie Rolls, Hershey Bars, etc. at triple their retail price. (My black market candy cartel was pre-conversion to Christ so cut me some slack!)

When it comes to VW, the Cardinals, the Patriots… and my elementary-school life of crime… we know inherently those types of cheating are wrong. But there is another kind of cheating we all do.

Andy Stanley in his book, Choosing to Cheat, states: “When we cheat, we choose to give up one thing in hopes of gaining something else of greater value.” In order to be healthy, we need to cheat something. In other words—a proper way to cheat exists. Let me give you three examples:

Work vs. family

One of the more subtle temptations we human beings face is ignoring family to pursue career advancement. We want to get ahead financially, so we cheat our family out of our time and energy. We rationalize this impulse: “I’m working like this so my family can have a better life.” What we don’t always understand is cheating our family this way doesn’t lead to a better life for them… or us.

Calling vs. others’ expectations

Jesus never allowed people’s expectations to distract Him from His calling.  For example, when Jesus discovered His good friend Lazarus was seriously ill, instead of dropping everything and heading for Lazarus’ house in Bethany, He stayed put for two days. When He learned Lazarus died, He told His disciples in John 11, “let us go back to Judea.” And by the time He finally got to Bethany, His friend had been dead four days. Jesus wasn’t being uncaring or irresponsible. He was demonstrating that He operated on His Father’s timetable and nobody else’s. He wasn’t encouraging us to skip a friend’s funeral. He was teaching us to not cheat our calling by allowing the expectations of others to get us off track.

Devotional life vs. to-do list

While in college at Oral Roberts University, Oral Roberts taught God would multiply time back to us if we put our relationship with Him first. When you’re studying 40-50 hours a week, it’s tempting to give God your leftovers. I put Oral’s idea to the test… and discovered an amazing reality. My studies seemed to click after giving God the first part of my day. Oral was right—spending time with God first helped my mind to work better. Every item on your list might not get done if you spend time with God in the morning—but you when you do—you will have accomplished the most important item. Don’t cheat on God with your to-do list.

Everybody cheats… work or family; calling or others’ expectations; devotional life or to-do list. These are not either-or propositions. You can be successful in your career and enjoy a great family life. You can be responsive to people without allowing them to run your life. You can have a close walk with Jesus and be productive at the same time. But there will be days when these priorities will compete for your time and energy. You’ll have to cheat one or the other.

Everybody cheats. So when you do… make sure you cheat properly.