Character production...


I read this the other day and have been thinking about it a bit:

Character isn't developed like heating up a quick dish in the microwave; it requires the slow cooker of life that sometimes doesn't even look like it's cooking.
-Dan Hyun

Character building - growing wiser, stronger and more resilient - these are good things I think we all want to develop right? Someone once said that "talent and ability might get you in the room, character keeps you in the room."

In the letter of Paul to the church in ancient Rome, he wrote this:

3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Ro 5:3–5). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

So suffering builds endurance, and endurance builds and develops character. Then, that character produces hope. That's a powerful yet sometimes uncomfortable progression. Can't we get to the character and hope without the suffering bit?

That's not how it works. As writer Dan Hyun summarizes it, "In the countercultural ways of God, suffering isn't just something to be endured, but the mystery of His loving hands forming us in beauty. Trust that God loves you like this, and even if your hands are trembling, rejoice in your suffering."

Pursuing character today!

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