Sunday Reflection – Character

Character – an interesting word.  A person can be a character in a story, a movie.  Homer Simpson is a character.  A character can be a mark in a word – like an accent mark.  A character can be a letter.  Character is also a word that can describe a person – a person of good or bad character. 

So, what is character when it comes to describing a person?  Perhaps it’s a good idea to start with the traditional starting point – the dictionary definition of character.

The aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing.  Moral or ethical quality: a man of fine, honorable character.  Qualities of honesty, courage, or the like; integrity: It takes character to face up to a difficult situation.  Reputation: a stain on one's character.

The good doctor Luke wrote about character when he described the Bereans:

Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.  (Acts 17:11-12)

Luke was impressed with their diligence in searching scriptures to be sure that what they were hearing from Paul was true or not.  The scriptures were their rulers to judge truth.  They so believed in and trusted God and his word they made Him and His word the standards of their lives.  Luke saw this as “noble character.”

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians at Rome about how character was a part of the chain of suffering for being a disciple of Jesus Christ.

And we  rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we  also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;  perseverance, character; and character, hope. (Romans 5:2-5)

If Paul is right, our sufferings should be a source of joy for out of our suffering we learn and practice persevering.  Out of this perseverance our character is developed – character that is based on a belief in and trust in God.  With that kind of character we can then know hope – regardless of our circumstances.

So, where does our character come from?

My personal belief is it’s built in the small, almost hidden little things of our lives.  Do we run that stop sign at 2:00 AM when no one else is around?  Do we take that pad of paper home from work for our children?  Do we tell that “small, white lie” to get out of something uncomfortable?  Do we fudge on our taxes to save a few extra dollars?

These small choices are, in my opinion, the building blocks of our character.  As someone said in a blog I read:

Character is not built in crisis; it is revealed in crisis.

I have been reading the Old Testament again and some of the troubling passages are the ones where God tells the Israelites to kill everyone when they take over a city – men, women, children, animals.  He tells the Israelites that these people will poison their belief in Him.  He knows human nature and knows that if any of these people who worship false idols are allowed to live among the Israelites their beliefs will become a contamination, a cancer among them.

That’s harsh even if I understand God’s reasoning.  I think that God has shown me that the learning for me from those difficult passages is that I need to “kill” anything – thought, word, attitude, deed - that will poison my spirit, anything that will be a cancer to my character.

Why is this important?  It’s important because our character is what shows to the world – especially when times get tough.  It would be nice if my character honored God.

A Time to Remember

In the early 1990’s I attended a business dinner at the Top Of The World Restaurant at the top of one of the two World Trade Center towers.  It was a good dinner, but the two things I remember most of all were (1) the incredibly fast elevator ride to the top and (2) the wonderful views, especially of the Statue of Liberty.

This video gives a little feel of both, but it’s missing two things.  First, you can’t get the feel in the bottom of your stomach from the elevator ride.  Second, they didn’t show the great view of the Statue of Liberty from the tower.

Still it brings back a special memory for me and I think it’s a good way to remember.

I also ran across this video about some of the special heroes of 9/11.  It’s long so watch whatever you want.

Horses and Chile

It was a good Friday.  The weather was beautiful this morning so Betty and I rode Morgunn and Sugar across the arroyo South of us to some new territory for Sugar.  It’s close to Rio Rancho Boulevard and goes by some industrial areas.  It was also pretty breezy.

Given the wind, a strange area with strange noises, Sugar did very well.  Morgunn was his usual solid self.

After we got home and rested a bit, we worked on our new batch of roasted chile.

It’s that great time of year when we buy some new chile and have it roasted at Wagner's in Corrales.  We went on Thursday morning because there’s not that many people there that early on a week day.  There was only one man and a couple ahead of us so we didn’t have to wait long.  On the weekends the parking lot is full and it’s not uncommon to have a dozen or more people ahead of you.

I did most of the work getting the roasted skin off the chile and Betty cleaned them off, cut them up and put them up in little plastic containers to be frozen.

It’s hard work, but it’s only once a year and it’s nice to know that it’s our chile we’re eating all throughout the year.

Good riding and good eating.  Can’t be beat.

One Last Chance

In 1961, when I was in high school, my folks bought a Volkswagen convertible.  I loved that car.  It had a canvas/wool top that was almost indestructible.  It was warm in the winter, despite VW’s terrible heaters, and, with the top down, cool in the summer. 

Since I started dating Betty while we were Juniors in high school, we spent a lot of dating time in that car – with the top down of course, rain or shine.

While I was in college they sold it to a young girl for $600.  Within a year, she had run the engine without oil and burned up the motor.  I really missed that convertible.

For over 50 years that was my only experience with a convertible, but I don’t think it ever got out of my blood.

Beginning a year or so ago, Betty and I started talking about maybe buying a convertible when our RAV4 was ready to trade in.  New Mexico is a good place to have a convertible because we have so much sunshine – about 310 days a year – so you can use a convertible the way they’re meant to be used.

We tend to hold onto cars for 7 or 8 years, but we start thinking about a new car when the old car approaches 100,000 miles.  The RAV4 has just under 90,000 on it now.

Back in May, when we were fortunate to be able to go to Hawaii, we rented a black, 2010 Mustang convertible when we were on the island of Maui.

We really enjoyed that car.  We drove it for a week – in city conditions, on the highway, on the twisting, turning road to Hana – and it performed very well for us.  We enjoyed being able to take the top down to enjoy the good weather and sights.  We figured that experience would either get this desire out of my system – or get it into Betty’s system as well.

I think the latter happened.  Betty joined my desire to have at least one convertible in our lives.

So, yesterday we signed the papers at Don Chalmers Ford in Rio Rancho to order a 2011 Mustang Premium.  It’s definitely not the top of the line Mustang as they are way too expensive, but it has some nice features that will help our old bodies as they get even older.  Our car should arrive about the end of October or first week in November.

Here are some generic pictures of the model and the color Mustang that we’re getting.

Those pictures all have black seating, but the seating we chose for our car is Saddle.

A splurge?  Probably, but we’re not getting any younger and, as I said above, New Mexico is a great place for a convertible.  We’ll probably keep this car until we’re in our 70’s and who knows, we’ll probably get a more sensible car then.

There’s an old joke that goes, “The first line of our will reads, ‘Being of sound mind, we spent it all.’”

Perhaps we’ll get a front license plate that says, “We’re driving our kids’ inheritance.”

Monday Video – Welcome Home

Back during my day in the Vietnam War, soldiers were rotated back home after their deployment in Vietnam was over.  They did not come back with their units.  It was a more difficult time with many people saying a lot of negative things to them.  No one received a true welcome home.  That’s why Vietnam Vets greet each other today with “Welcome Home.”

One of the learnings for the military is today units deploy and come home together so they have the support of each other as they transition back to the “real world.”  Fortunately, many of my generation want to be sure that the young soldiers, airmen and sailors have an appropriate welcome home to show our appreciation.  We have been at Albuquerque’s airport when units have come home from Iraq and it’s touching to see the welcome they receive.

Some young soldiers recently (August 11) received this kind of special welcome at the Dallas airport – with an extra special welcome from some special people.

Enjoy.

Sunday Reflection – Rest

There remains, then, a Sabbath — rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.  (Hebrews 4:9-10)

It’s been a busy day for us.  We went to the Corrales Growers Market this morning.  After taking our chard, mustard greens, grapes and oven bread home, we went to church.

After church we went shopping at Albertsons.  After coming home and putting our groceries away we went next door to a Labor Day BBQ.  Our neighbor, Carolyn, makes some delicious ribs.

After visiting with her and some other friends, we came home to rest for a short time. After that it was time to feed the horses.

A lot of “after thats” for this Sunday.  I was reminded of God’s intent for us to rest on the Sabbath when I saw this little bunny taking his rest in the shade.

 
At first he was a little alert as I worked around him cleaning up the horses’ manure.

Then after a few minutes I think he thought, “this is too much work,” and he rested his little head down on the sand.

I guess I need to take lessons from this little bunny who knows how to take advantage of God’s Sabbath.

Friday Funny – Happy Labor Day Weekend

Betty and I both are finally feeling a little better – getting over this bug we’ve had.  We felt good enough to get the horses out this morning for a nice, relaxed ride to the arroyo South of us.  It’s our favorite ride around our house.  Both horses did well.

Since this is the first day of a holiday weekend – Happy Labor Day – I thought this cartoon would be appropriate for Friday’s Funny.