Character

Would your reputation recognize your character if they met in the dark?

Reputation is who you are supposed to be, but character is who you really are. Too often these entities that should be one in the same are merely distant cousins. They know what each other looks like but never spend enough time together to be intimate.

John Morley once said, “Living a double life will get you nowhere twice as fast.” So true.

I have recently found myself reading and rereading a passage where David made a plea to God that I also desire desperately. It’s in Psalms 51:10. David prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

I don’t know if we have ever known a time where character was so scarce in the world. The economic crisis we are facing as a nation and a world right now is the result of what happens when people become more obsessed with doing what is best for themselves in the short than doing what’s right for others in the long.

AIG, CITIGROUP, and Madoff are the buzzwords of 09 and they are all synonymous with low character.

Ask yourself this honest question, "What kind of world would this world be if everyone were just like me?”

I was driving and thinking last week when I was confronted by a sign that got my attention, it simply said, “KEEP RIGHT.” I thought about how in scripture God directed Paul in his miraculous conversion to a street called STRAIGHT. Stay right on straight street? Hmmmmm, smells like God.

Scripture instructs us to be like a tree planted by rivers of water but it’s impossible to grow high when your character is low. We should live our lives so that our friends could surely defend us but never have to do so.

Excellence in character is shown by doing unwitnessed what we would be doing with the whole world watching. Doing the right thing is not always the easy thing but the road around the curve is smoother and straighter when paved with character.

I often wonder, would the boy I once was be proud of the man I am? I hope so. The people I Pastor at CCA hear me often say, “I may not be what I ought to be but I’m sure not what I used to be. I am somewhere in between.” I am thankful that God knows our hearts and sees what is really in our spirit.

Now, here is the cold, hard truth about character, you either have it or you don’t. You can’t be a little pregnant, you either are or you aren’t, character is the same way. The way you deal with ANYTHING is the way you deal with EVERYTHING.

The way God measures our character is by motive and intentions. Others may assess us and judge our character based on facts alone but God looks deeper and sees what drives our actions.

So when we have truth in the inward parts, as David once wrote, it means we have honest and character driven intentions. This is the life God blesses.

So what about you? Leave me a comment and tell me what you think about this issue of character. Do you see more or less? How do you define character? Who is the most Character driven person you know?

Until next week remember this, a man who lives right has more power in his silence than a man of low character does in his words.

All for Christ,
J.Mark