Character Still Matters

 

“Character may be manifested in the great moments, 

but it is made in the small ones.” Phillips Brooks

   I wonder if A. Bartlett Giamatti is spinning in his grave. Giamatti, one time Commissioner of Major League Baseball, will be forever remembered as the man who banned baseball legend, Pete Rose for life after it was discovered Rose was gambling on baseball games, including those of his own team, the Cincinnati Reds. A chapter in the book of the baseball writings of Giamatti, A Great and Glorious Game, unpacks the intense struggle Giamatti had before determining Rose should be banned for life. 

  What a contrast to another former commissioner of baseball, Faye Vincent, who recently stated that “character” should be removed as an issue for the election of individuals to the hall of fame. In other words, in an argument that we’ve heard ad nauseam in recent decades, character doesn’t matter. But in our heart we all know that it does. While Vincent was willing to give PED users a pass, at least he held the line that Rose should be permanently banned. 

  When it comes to American politics, particularly presidential politics, character issues have continually entered into the national debate, whether it was Bill Clinton in the 1990s or Donald Trump in the present. When Trump was running for president and his debauchery was well-known, even some Christians sought to rationalize it away with “I’m voting for a president, not a pastor” (not that most of the other choices were individuals of sterling character).

  In spite of our blusters we all know that character matters…and in our day to day lives, we live that way. For example, if you knew that your financial consultant had been convicted of embezzling, would character matter? If you learned that your cardiologist had lost several malpractice lawsuits, would character matter? Or, if you learned that your favorite restaurant had continual health code violations, would character matter?

  Currently, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is in the hot seat with his political future in jeopardy. Recently, Boris Johnson addressed Parliament to defend his continuation as Prime Minister because of a report with 500 pages of evidence and more than 300 photographs of Johnson and his staff flouting his own COVID lockdown rules. He required, with police power, the citizens of the U.K. to obey those rules, while he and his own staff flaunted those very same rules. Sadly, the flouting of rules by the rule makers is an all too common occurrence during this pandemic.

  Please understand, character is NOT sinlessness. The only person to live a sinless life was the Lord Jesus. Though Christians will struggle with their sin nature until they get to heaven and receive their perfected and glorified bodies, by God’s grace, we must strive to sin less. We must seek to be individuals of godly character because God is all about character.

  What is character? Evangelist D.L Moody had this to say about character: “Character is what you are in the dark” and “True character is what we are when nobody’s looking, in the secret chambers of the heart.”

  Character is more than talk. Anyone can say they have integrity but their behavior is the true indicator. James 2:18, “But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” One of the first places character flaws show up is in our language patterns. When we are “in integrity,” we speak from a place of honesty and wholeness. Words match actions. As Dr. Seuss put it, “We say what we mean and we mean what we say.” When we break from this pattern and say things we don’t really mean, we jettison godly character, moving out of integrity. “Your walk talks and your talk talks but your walk talks louder than your talk talks.”

  Talent is a gift, character is a choice. There are many things in our life that we have no control over. We don’t get to pick our parents, our upbringing, our talents, our IQ, but each of us can choose our character. We create character every time we make choices.

  Maybe that’s part of our attraction to superheroes. These very talented individuals are so unlike what we commonly think of as celebrities. They really are the good guys.

  It’s certainly why a Tim Tebow is loved and admired. Despite all of the mocking and Tebowing memes, no one seriously questions his character. At one point he had the world watching him, waiting for him to crack under the pressure of being a self-proclaimed role model. To his credit he never did. The only thing that Tebow has devoted his life to more than football, is helping others. He’s gone to Africa countless times as a missionary and has helped countless children through his “Tim Tebow Foundation.” He isn’t just a great athlete to look up to, Tebow is a great person of character to aspire to be. 

  A lack of character carries a high price. Other than the most avid sports fans, once an athlete’s abilities wane, if they’re not a person of character and because of it were admired outside the game, the memory of them soon drops into the dustbin of history. Even in our personal lives the teachers, neighbors or former bosses we remember were often men and women of character. Character is what made them stand out and adhere to the pages of our memory. They went the extra mile to do the right thing and often did the right thing when others did not or when it was unpopular.

  God’s intent is that each of us develop character throughout our lives as Jesus did, “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). God values character and so must we. Too often in our homes and churches we focus on the passing standards of a dying world and place character on a backburner. Yet, it is godly character that pleases God and wears well when talent and other abilities are long gone.

  A man took his daughter to the carnival, and she immediately ran over to a booth and asked for cotton candy. As the attendant handed her a huge ball of it, her Dad asked, “Sweetheart, are you sure you can eat all of that?” “Don’t worry,” she answered, “I’m a lot bigger on the inside than on the outside.” That’s what real character is – being bigger on the inside. 

  As an old German Proverb says: “When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost.”

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