Who Are You?

2 Kings 5: ² “…Aramean raiders had invaded the land of Israel, and among their captives was a young girl who had been given to Naaman’s wife as a maid. ³ One day the girl said to her mistress, “I wish my master would go to see the prophet… He would heal him of his leprosy.”

The world’s most pressing need after Jesus, is character. An anonymous quote says, “Character is who you are when no one is watching”. And I believe it is really apt. 

Who you are when the lights are out and no one is watching determines your character.A lot of people get uncomfortable when they discover that the CIA actually archives all tweets, Facebook messages, and whatsapp messages. The virtual world is a dark space where people thrive doing all sorts of strange things. Who you are when no one is watching is the determinant factor of whether you have character or not.

You cannot say you are not a thief until you have an opportunity to steal without anyone  knowing, and you still do not steal. Similarly, you cannot say you are not an adulterer until you have an opportunity to commit adultery without anyone knowing, and you do not commit adultery. Who are you when no one is watching? Character is different from reputation because reputation is what other people think about us while character is who we are. Your character is not your reputation and your character is not your achievement. Your achievement influences your reputation.

The difference between character and achievement is that character is who you are but achievement is what you have done. What you have done is not who you are. What you do flows from who you are but what you have done is not who you are. There are a lot of examples of lapses in character from secular leadership, political leadership, boardroom executive scandals, and church scandals. While we hear all those scary stories of lapses in character, the truth is that there are loads of examples and evidences of strong character around us. It is important that we highlight it because failure to do so makes people think there is no hope. Every day I see examples of people that have strong characters.

The young slave girl from our Scripture reference embodies a lot of the bedrocks of character that we will be learning from for the next couple of days. It took courage for her to speak to her master’s wife; she felt compassion for her master Naaman, she actually  put herself on the line and that is self-sacrifice.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, in this season please build my character and change my life, in Jesus Name. Amen!