Our True Character....

The other day, there was a great quote I noticed as someone's tag line.  And it kind of fits with all this talk about fundamentalism. Wayne Jacobsen from the God Journey said it...and it it totally fits him.  He and I are not best buds or anything but I've listened to quite a few of his podcasts (with Brad Cummings) and read some of his writings...including his blog.  The quote?

The test of character is how you're willing to treat someone when you are absolutely certain you are right. -Wayne Jacobsen

So I googled "quotes about character" and came up with the following that I thought blog worthy.  I love quotes.  Succint, encapsulated truths. 

Similar to the above quote...

This is the final test of a gentleman -- his respect for those who can be of no possible service to him.
--Phelps

The best index to a person's character is (a) how he treats people who can't do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can't fight back.

Abigail Van Buren

James D. Miles and Ann Landers are also credited with saying the same thing...with only a variation of a word or two. 

And another line of thought....also true....

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. -Martin Luther King, Jr., "Strength to Love" speech (1963)

When the luggage is lost, when the house burns down, when one is falsely maligned, treated unfairly, when the waitress spills a cup of coffee in your lap....how do you behave then?

And then there is the revelation that comes with the kind of humor a person likes....or not....

A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents. -G. C.  Lichtenberg

There is nothing in which people more betray their character than in what they laugh at." Goethe

And then there is the "will I get caught" aspect to character:

Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking. H. Jackson Brown Junior

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out. -Thomas Babington Macaulay

And what wealth can reveal about one's true nature

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. -Abraham Lincoln

Or when we evaluate other people....

A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another's. -Jean Paul Richter

And one that many of us can relate to...

A persons character is but half formed until after wedlock."C. Simmons

But truly....the problem with most of us might be that we live out of the wrong character...out of our egoic mind/adamic carnal nature.  The solution?  Gary Sigler says the following:

This is why Paul said, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." Phil 2:5 He also said, "You have the mind of Christ." How do we let that mind be in us? Ah, it is through practice. It is learning how to discern that which is of God, from that which is from the natural mind.

Casting off the old man...putting on the new.  When we are living out of our christ nature...walking in the spirit....abiding in the Presence....our character is never compromised.....