Some rivers run deep and some shallow and it takes a trained eye to look beyond the surface and see the depth.”
–Cliff Hudgins (Viejo and the Ranger)
“Your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”
–1 Corinthians 2:5 (KJV)
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The storms of life, trouble and trials, obstacles along the journey do come at time to help us build our character, but more often they come to confirm the quality of our character. A person with a weak character may crumble when those trials come. On the surface, just being with them from day to day, you might think they have got it all together, but then, wham! they fall apart. I remember a situation I had with a teacher once. All year long she had been telling her class that all they had to do was trust in the Lord and that He would always be with them. Then a crisis came to her, and she crumbled. She moaned and cried–I finally had to send her home. I told her that she destroyed in a few minutes what she had been teaching all year. Where was her trust?
Character is built for a purpose, and crisis comes to test its endurance! Character is not a showy thing, in fact the depth of character might be hidden until a storm begins to rage, or when a task must be undertaken.
“Great things are done when men and mountains meet:
This is not done by jostling in the street.”
–William Blake
Sometimes you can look at a person and quickly see their weakness–they run swallow. Others are whiners, cry-babies, creampuffs, or to be more modern, snowflakes. Look at them wrong and they melt and go into panic mode. One thing for sure, if there isn’t character within when the storms rage, when the trials come, there might be a breaking.
John Huss was facing the prospect of being burned as a heretic (how about that for toleration and political correctness?). He was tried before the Council of Constance where he declared on July 1, 1415: “I, John Huss, trusting to be a priest of Jesus Christ–for fear that I would offend God giving a testimony under oath–cannot recant the articles of faith which false witnesses attribute to me, for I did not preach, assert, or defend them. I must not recant all my statements, for this cannot be done without offending God and infringing upon the sacred authorities.”
One hundred years later, another stalwart man made a similar statement at the Diet of Worms on April 18, 1521. Martin Luther declared in his own defense: “Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God.”
“In extreme crisis we do not necessarily test our faith. Our faith is expressed spontaneously from decisions previously made. This is what realistically sustains and strengthens us for service to our God and nation.” (Reuben V. Johnson) We need to be firm as those giants of faith from the past. We need to set our faces like flint so that we “may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” (Ephesians 6:13 NKJV)
To stand–shows character! To stand–shows faith! For it is written, “But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” (Matthew 24:13 – NKJV)