Standing tall

November 10, 2006

By Doug Graham

How many times have you heard a parent correct a child regarding good posture?

“Sit up straight! Don’t slouch! Straighten your shoulders! Stick your chest out!”

Why do we make such a big deal about posture? Because good posture is more than attractive; it encourages a better quality of life. Good posture parallels the issue of character in our lives. Character is the inner skeletal system that holds everything else in our life together.

Osteoporosis is a disease in which bones become porous and break easily. A person with such a health malady often lacks good posture and their quality of life suffers. But what about a person who has “osteoporosis” of character?

C. S. Lewis wrote that one day our society would look like a human body with a big head, a bulging stomach and a sunken chest. The head would represent our emphasis of knowledge; the bulging stomach our insatiable appetite for pleasure; and the sunken chest our disinterest in character. His prediction has certainly proven true. We have more education and more creature comforts than ever before. But character is slipping.

General Norman Schwarzkopf wrote, “Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without strategy.” At the end of the day, a person without talent or strategy, but who has maintained their character, can sleep soundly with great expectations for tomorrow. Give away your character and you have nothing left to live for.

Nothing replaces character. Character lies in the deepest place of a person’s being. Someone said character is like toothpaste — it’s what comes out when life squeezes you in the middle.

How would you define your character? What comes out of you when life “puts the squeeze” on you? Why not let God’s Word build character in your life.

Doug Graham is senior pastor of Evangel Assembly of God in Bismarck, N.D.