Why Character Matters: A Case Study

From here:

Jonny Osborne, seven, symbolised the face of a new generation yesterday as he marched shoulder to shoulder with servicemen and women to honour those killed by war.

But three miles across London from the Armistice Day ceremony at the Cenotaph, another face of Britain was on display. It was contorted with hatred, poisoned by politics, and fuelled by flames from a giant, burning poppy.

These were the Muslim extremists who brought shame to the memory of the dead yesterday by breaking the traditional two-minute silence with chants of ‘British soldiers burn in hell’.

In today’s reflection below on character, I observed that good character almost always produces solid relationships because God sees character, in part, as having a concern for the welfare of others.

In the sad case above, we have a classic non-example of how this works. I do not know what is on the hearts and in the minds of those who chanted that British soldiers burn in hell. What I do know is that they are not displaying the kind of godly character that our Lord Jesus always demonstrated. Their anger and hatred sow strife and discord. By chanting what they did and when they did it, they clearly do not care about others. They only apparently care about their own concerns and program. Certainly they are not using the wealth of this world to help build an eternal future for themselves.

They may very well think they are being faithful, but the god they are following is not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who desires us to have love, compassion, and concern for others, and who asks us to humble ourselves rather than to cause needless discord and animosity with others. No, these extremists are doing exactly the opposite and the reaction of those against whom their venom is aimed is predictable–anger, rancor, discord, strife, animosity. This is not the kind of character our Lord asks us to display if we desire to be part of his Kingdom.

May our Lord Jesus send forth his Spirit to put his Light in these men’s darkened minds and hearts so that they may not remain in exile from God forever.