Honest Abe

Posted on April 30, 2018 by America's Keswick in Freedom Fighters

You’ve heard expressions like this:

“That guy’s a real character”
“He was really out of character when he did …”
“When I think about someone with character, I think of …”

D.L. Moody said, “Character is what you are in the dark.” And Charles Swindoll adds, “True character is what we are when nobody’s looking, in the secret chambers of the heart.”

I am in the process of reading an interesting book about character. It is not a Christian book per se, but it is very interesting.

One of my heroes is Abraham Lincoln. Here are two stories from The Character Gap:

Lincoln could not rest for an instant under the consciousness that he had, even unwittingly, defrauded anybody. On one occasion, while clerking in Offutt’s store, at New Salem, Ill., he sold a woman a little bill of goods, amounting in value by the reckoning, to two dollars six and a quarter cents. He received the money, and the woman went away. On adding the items of the bill again, to make himself sure of correctness, he found that he had taken six and a quarter cents too much. It was night, and, closing and locking the store, he started out on foot, a distance of two or three miles, for the house of his defrauded customer, and, delivering over to her the sum whose possession had so much troubled him, went home satisfied.

On another occasion, just as he was closing the store for the night, a woman entered, and asked for a half pound of tea. The tea was weighed out and paid for, and the store was left for the night. The next morning, Lincoln entered to begin the duties of the day, when he discovered a four-ounce weight on the scales. He saw at once that he had made a mistake, and, shutting the store, he took a long walk before breakfast to deliver the remainder of the tea. These are very humble incidents, but they illustrate the man’s perfect conscientiousness—his sensitive honesty—better perhaps than they would if they were of greater moment.

Miller, Christian B.. The Character Gap: How Good Are We? (Philosophy in Action) (p. 31). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.

I once heard Pastor Chuck Swindoll say that a man of character would not even use a paperclip from the office without asking permission.

How easy it is for us to dismiss stuff like this and forget that our character does matter?

Think about some of these:

• I make a purchase from the store, and the clerk gives me back the wrong change, and I don’t realize it until I am almost home. What do I do?
• I order something from Amazon, and inadvertently something that I didn’t order gets put in my order. There is no invoice for it. What do I do?
• I am working for a company that has a no cell phone use policy during work hours except for an emergency. They specifically state, no personal phone calls while being clocked in. But who is going to know?
• I said I worked a 40 hour week, but I probably spent at least five hours on my cell phone.
• My company paid to lease a ditch-digger. The contract says it can only be used on the property where it is leased. But I have a project at my church, and they could use the ditch-digger, and it would save them money. What’s the big deal?

What is character? How does it play out in these situations? Well King Solomon under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit lays it out there pretty plainly and without much wiggle room:

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

So how are you doing with the character thing?

Overflowing and abounding with hope,

Bill Welte, President/CEO
America’s Keswick

 

Written by Bill Welte, President/CEO of America’s Keswick: Bill has been married to his child sweetheart for 40+ years and has four married kids and 11 amazing grand kids. He loves music and is an avid reader.

The Daily Bible Reading: Psalm 102-104 |You can download our 2017 Daily Bible Reading Plan by clicking here

Think About This: A man’s best collateral is his character. — J. P. Morgan

This Week’s Verse to Memorize:

Those who fear You will be glad when they see me, Because I have hoped in Your word. Psalm 119:74