Character is what you are when no one is looking. And in this busy world it’s easy to get distracted and lose our way. The proverbs said, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life” 4,23. And the Lord Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Matt. 6,21. It matters. The things we do and like and find amusing or entertaining have their affect on our character.
An interesting anecdote is about a man who is getting dressed for dinner with fiends, and he is checking a shirt to see if he can wear it again. His wife says to him, “Remember dear, if it’s doubtful, don’t”.
Good advice. St. Paul in Romans 14 is tackling the problem of food that had been used at the temple. There is really nothing wrong with using that. But some had their doubts, so his advice addresses the principle that should guide our conscience. If doubtful, don’t. If it offends another, Paul says, don’t do it. For it is wrong to do anything that might make another, a weaker Christian, stumble v.21.
An old Cherokee Indian is sitting at a fire with his grandson who has broken a tribal taboo, and his grandpa wanted to make him understand what made him do it. So he said, “It’s like we have two wolves inside of us, one is good, the other is bad, and both demand obedience.” “Which one wins,” the boy asked. “The one we feed”.
Sounds like St. Paul in Romans chapter 7. “O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?” The struggle of a person who sins, and doesn’t want to.
So suggests Romans 13,14, “Make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”
That’s what character is all about, isn’t it?
GPD 7/9/08
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