Harvesting Character by Planting Seeds of Integrity & Podcast

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Vienna, Austria is one of my most cherished and beloved places in all the world. Living there for years during my twenties taught me to love tea and coffee times, to engage in history even more, to become international in my heart and to understand how hungry people are to know the love of God and His purposes for their lives.

One of my favorite places to walk was the Volksgarten, (the people’s garden). Created and opened for the public in 1821 for the common people to have a lovely place to walk, it has become known for the proliferation of some of the most beautiful gardens in the world. Once when walking there, I happened upon a gardener. He proudly spoke to my friend and me about what it cost to cultivate such roses. One of the overall lessons I learned from him was that the garden had to be cultivated over many years, always cut back to the nub when growing season was over, protected and fertilized and watered the right amount each season. The cultivation of this treasure of plants has not come about by accident but by careful planning and care over many years, through many differing gardeners who cared that the legacy keep producing gorgeous flowers.

The Legacy of a Godly character: Integrity, Righteousness, Truth, Faithfulness

So it is with godly character and integrity. Reaping a harvest of character comes from planting seeds of integrity over a lifetime. What you sow you will reap. But the amazing result is that you will have fruit for your labor and be satisfied and gratified to see how God has worked with you as you walk in obedience. 

Recently, I read this quote from Billy Graham, who has been in my mind since his memorial. 

The greatest legacy one can pass on to one's children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one's life, but rather a legacy of character and faith. BILLY GRAHAM

C.S. Lewis is famous for his essay “Men Without Chests” (from The Abolition of Man). In it, he describes a generation of people without virtue or character because of the rise of relativism and loss of objective truth. In the style of the ancients, he describes the head as the place of knowledge, the heart as the place of passion, and the chest as the place of virtue and character.

Only when a person has a well-developed character can they properly put to use knowledge and passion. Without the strength of character developed in the chest, knowledge can become cruel and passion destructive. With character, knowledge becomes wisdom and passion becomes love.

It seems that there are many people without chests in our world. With the constant influx of information provided by the internet, and no effective ways to determine the objectivity or truthfulness of that information, people can develop keen opinions, but not be required either to validate those opinions or to act on them. In the same way, it is easy for us to voice emotional and idealistic claims without doing the hard work of validating our opinions objectively and putting them into actual practice in our lives. Opinion becomes a substitute for character.

If we are truly to be full-bodied people who act on the biblical ideals that we hold to be objectively true, then we must practice integrity and grow the muscle of character; we must become men and women with chests.

The essence of character is found in the habitual heart choices of an individual over a long period of time. Character is the constant work of a lifetime and the product of a heart engaged in wisdom, choosing the right thing over and over again. It is like practicing a sport. If you’ve ever taught a child to catch or throw a ball, you know the moment in which it “clicks.”

Suddenly, the catcher goes from awkward fumbles to being able to catch the ball almost every time; snagging the ball out of the air becomes an automatic response. Character is the product of good choices made over and over again, so that when the curveballs of life come your way, you can automatically respond in wisdom because that is what you have practiced.

What we practice shapes who we become, and the voices we listen to shape what we will practice. If we are to live lives of character, we must invest in wisdom. One of my mentors once gave me a great quote: “God forgives, but wisdom does not.” The heart of wisdom is properly understanding the impact and meaning of our personal choices. The book of Proverbs very clearly delineates good and bad decisions, a practice which is not popular in our day.

The purpose of Proverbs is not to create strict rules to live by, but to help the reader live a life of wisdom which brings peace. I do not tell my children “don’t go over the speed limit” because I like to impose difficult rules upon them, but because if they do go over the speed limit they will more likely have to pay a ticket or get in a wreck. Wisdom creates healthy hedges around our behavior of what we will and won’t do.

We obey God's commands in order to build our lives on foundations that will stand and not fail us in the storms of life. We live with virtue so that others can look to us as beacons that will show them the love and redemption of God. Our virtue should help in our outreach and draw others to us, not send them away.

When God called us to be lights in a lost generation, His desire was that, through the virtue of our purity of life and behavior, we would become guides to those who long to move from darkness into light.

Becoming the best you can be requires that you own your integrity and live the most virtuous life possible.

Because we reflect the character of God, Christians should be the most trustworthy, hardworking, truth-telling, dependable, moral, patient, and grace-filled people. This is our heritage from God.

Our integrity comes before our influence. 

Integrity comes from years of practicing living with godly character. Integrity is a lifelong fruit of determining to live faithfully. Christ is the model for what it looks like to have perfect integrity. But integrity brings the reward of living well into your life and watching God faithfully produce eternal fruit through the pages of your story.

Character is the constant work of a lifetime. and a product of a heart engaged in wisdom, and choosing the righteous option of obedience over and over again. 

I have received many messages, well wishes, encouragement and prayers over the last few weeks.  I am having plenty of opportunities to practice this principle of character training in my own life right now, as are you. 

As many of you know, a couple of years ago, just about this time, I had an accident where I fell against the sharp corner edge of an old table and had 12 weeks of traveling to London to meet with an eye specialist. I endured much pain, eyedrops sometimes every hour of the day and night. Clay did all the housework, traveled with me by train to London, helped me to endure.

As I look back, I never questioned God or His goodness or even entertained the idea that He had designed this. We read in Scripture that God cannot be tempted by evil. I know vaguely it could have been part of spiritual warfare, but because God had stretched me over many years of calamity, car accidents, illnesses of children, church splits, you name it, I had learned to be a warrior in this battle of life.

Being obedient to God and stretching our character towards holiness prepares us for the story God wants ut so live. There may be other areas in my life where I should surely doubt God or question life—that is a part of our limited human make up.  My vision is still very impaired. The end result is that my eye is permanently damaged, and I am quite visually impaired now, even when I write. Yet, I am just grateful for the one good eye and I have learned more and more to relinquish my rights to God and to seek to follow Him through whatever my life brings. A part of character is to be able to say to God, “Not my will, but yours be done. Use me for your purposes and your glory.   I know that the One who is walking with me through this is faithful.

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