Character Matters

We live in a society that tells us “the end justifies the means.” American culture cries out “who you are on the inside doesn’t matter… you are merely what you produce.” We see the effects of this worldview veining itself throughout our land. From the white halls of capital hill to the green pitch of our sports arenas we find people vacating the hard work of character for the quick fix of easy results. This, however, is not a sustainable ethos and everywhere you look you can see its cracks making their way through our foundation and threatening to bring down the house. I would claim that many of the major crisis we are currently facing as a nation: the looming double dip recession, threats of government shutdowns, the housing market crash, our unbalanced budget can all be traced back to issues dealing with character. What we have failed to realize is that in the same way the personality of an artist is reflected in their work so our character is reflected in even our smallest actions. Character demands that you cannot separate the end and the means, for they are merely two sides of one coin.

Right action involves living with a split focus, half of your sight toward the future making sure you are headed toward the right goal and the other half of your sight watching every step making sure that you are acting in good character. I would claim that is it dangerous to lose focus on either and put 100% in one place. Focus only on character and you lose sight on where you are going falling into self-involvement and a loss of vision. If you are a theist this is a travesty because we have most assuredly been given a vision and that vision is not merely moralsim. Conversely, focus only on the end and when you arrive you will find that you are no longer the same person, for it is the journey that makes the man not the destination. With the end only in sight you might well lose your soul along the way, and this is right where we find our world today. Putting our materialistic and hedonistic ends aside (a different discussion for a different day) we need to get character back into our means. Character matters!