Characterless Characters

A person can be a character without having any. The term, “They’re a real character,” doesn’t necessarily mean the person referred to possesses it. It is a trait I have observed, over long years, that is rapidly becoming extinct. To me, character is the backbone of an individual’s life; it is the thing that holds one up so he or she can walk straight and tall, in the midst of a “crooked and perverse” world.

If you were asking me to describe this present age, I would simply use one word, “shallow.” In my opinion, the mass of humanity is void of any inner substance. Their character is so lean they don’t even cast a shadow. We can imitate a lot of things in life, but character is not on the list. Like an actor playing a part, sooner or later the make-up has to come off and the garments changed. It is then everyone sees them step out of another’s character into his or her own. “You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all of the time.”

The greatest test of a man’s character is how he takes charge of his own life. No Christian need stay the way he or she is. An old Hindu proverb says, “There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.” Self-conquest is the greatest victory of all. Robert Browning said, “When a man’s fight begins within himself, he is worth something.”