Episode 347: I’m Talkin…Character

I’m talking episode 347 for December 8th, 2024.

This is Joel from the I’m Talking Microcast, where I share my thoughts on a topic that has piqued my interest this past week.

This week we’re talking character.

So this week I want to start with a definition because I think it’s important.

I’m going to try to talk about two parts of the word character and see how that goes.

The first one is moral excellence and firmness.

And so that seems like a definition that we’ve probably heard before, a person with character.

They are who they are, regardless of who’s watching, that kind of thing.

That’s the moral excellence, not just what people are watching, it’s the firmness on the second half of that definition that says it’s kind of a constant.

And then the other definition of the word character is just personality, where that person is quite a character.

So I think the world is looking for both of those things.

I think they enjoy knowing people of character because they know they can be trusted, even if they don’t feel like they can always trust that person because so many people fail in that area.

But it is something that employers are looking for, something that friends are looking for.

It’s something that people like to see in others.

And that is why it’s important that the firmness falls into that, because it’s not just at the instant that the person had a character momentarily, but that character is something that always comes out, regardless of the situation.

And then the other side of character that people use is like the life of the party.

It’s someone that is kind of lights up the place.

Sometimes, unfortunately, they use it in a derogatory sense where a person is quite a character because they are doing something that may border on ridiculous, may actually border on being unsafe.

Who knows?

And the condition that they are in might attest to that.

And therein lies the challenge for those of us who call ourselves Christians.

I think as Christians, we want both of those definitions.

We want to have a firmness in our moral excellence.

That is because Christ is our model, but we also want to be people who are people with personality, who have some character, who, you know, they can be funny at times.

They can actually be the life of the party, even though it’s, you know, not fake.

It’s just who that person is.

And, you know, why is it that we need both?

And I think the reason is because moral character draws people to who Jesus is as we profess to be Christians.

Being a person of character that’s personality means that we do not lose fun when we become Christians.

There’s both sides of that definition that we get to be as Christians.

And, and so both are more true in Christians than in anyone else, because it is really who we are.

We are people of moral excellence and a firmness to stand in that, but we are also people who enjoy having a good time.

And I think that is important for the world to see.

So I have two grandkids and they are full of the personality side of the word character.

And as a grandfather, my job is to also build in them to be people of character, moral excellence, and firmness.

And I enjoy the personality side of them.

It makes me laugh.

It makes them fun to be around, but I absolutely want them to be morally excellent in that character sense, because then they are good people also.

Until next week, this is Joel from the I’m Talking Microcast.