One morning during a class that I was teaching, we had somehow meandered onto the topic of character. Character solidification, more specifically. We got there because one gentleman had asked—quite sincerely—and with a heart that seemed deeply troubled at the fact that people could do to others—seemingly with ease—the unthinkable atrocities that we read about that took place during World War II. He wondered how it was that a person could wake up one day and do the hateful things that they once did not. Almost suggesting that the person changed overnight, so to speak. But the answer to his wonderings, they didn’t. A person doesn’t just wake up one day given over to hate as if a switch was flicked. A person gets there slowly. One moment, one compromise after the next. When we willfully and consistently decide to respond with hatred in the moments that come our way, the realisation will arrive that the accumulative expression of these moments have become a hateful life, now willing to compromise at far less a price than once before. And from the outside looking in, what you might imagine to be impossible to do to others, appears somewhat easy for an individual that has continually compromised and given themself over to anything less than love. It is such a good question to ask how it is that we can start off so well, but end off so badly. A man named Saul might come to mind when considering this kind of question.
A Humble Hero
Saul was a handsome and young man when he was called to kingship. It is said that “There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people (1 Samuel 9:1-2). Saul was anointed by God by Samuel. Samuel said, "Has not the Lord anointed you to be prince over his people Israel? And you shall reign over the people of the Lord, and you will save them from the hand of their surrounding enemies.” He went on to say, “The Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man." The text continues, “When he turned his back to leave Samuel, God gave him another heart.” (1 Samuel 10:1-6, 9). Saul listened to God, he was bold in leadership, Saul was known as a rescuing hero. It says in 1 Samuel 14:47-48, “When Saul had taken the kingship over Israel, he fought against all his enemies on every side... Wherever he turned he routed them. And he did valiantly and struck the Amalekites and delivered Israel out of the hands of those who plundered them.” Saul had a heroic beginning. He truly did start off so well. But despite that, as we know, Saul became someone terribly unbearable.
A Murderous Monster
Saul soon turned. But how? One compromise at a time. He made foolish vows. In jealousy, Saul was continually trying to kill David (the one whom God had told would be king of over the Jews). Saul was willing to use his own daughter to get to David. If that’s not enough visible evidence of poor character slowly getting worse, there was a moment when Saul exploded in anger at Jonathan—his own son—saying, "You son of a slut! Shame on you and on the mother who birthed you!" Saul then hurled his spear at him to strike (kill) him (1 Samuel 20:30,33). Then, which would seem like a point of no return, Saul massacred God’s priests and their families.
We read in 1 Samuel 22:9-20:
“Doeg the Edomite, who was standing with Saul's officials, said, "I saw the son of Jesse come to Ahimelek son of Ahitub at Nob. Ahimelek inquired of the Lord for him; he also gave him provisions and the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”
Then the king sent for the priest Ahimelek son of Ahitub and all the men of his family, who were the priests at Nob, and they all came to the king. Saul said, "Listen now, son of Ahitub." "Yes, my lord," he answered. Saul said to him, "Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, giving him bread and a sword and inquiring of God for him, so that he has rebelled against me and lies in wait for me, as he does today?"
Ahimelek answered the king, "Who of all your servants is as loyal as David, the king's son-in-law, captain of your bodyguard and highly respected in your household? Was that day the first time I inquired of God for him? Of course not! Let not the king accuse your servant or any of his father's family, for your servant knows nothing at all about this whole affair."
But the king said, "You will surely die, Ahimelek, you and your whole family." Then the king ordered the guards at his side: "Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because they too have sided with David. They knew he was fleeing, yet they did not tell me."
But the king's officials were unwilling to raise a hand to strike the priests of the Lord.
The king then ordered Doeg, "You turn and strike down the priests." So Doeg the Edomite turned and struck them down.
That day he killed eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod. He also put to the sword Nob, the town of the priests, with its men and women, its children and infants, and its cattle, donkeys, and sheep. But one son of Ahimelek son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled to join David." (22:9-20)
Like Fiction
Saul's massacre of the priests is like a scene in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. Jedi hero Anakin Skywalker becomes Sith monster Darth Vader and murders all the Jedi children. In the movie, it felt like this was the turning point for him, however, we had seen the slow transition to the dark side as he compromised along the way. But that’s fiction.
Closer Than Fiction
Another such example that might be found in our history books took place on November 9th, 1938. This is not fiction. This happened. I first came to read about it in A.J. Swoboda’s book, After Doubt: How To Question Your Faith Without Losing It, where the story was used much in the same way I’d like to offer it here.
The night has since been dubbed Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass. It was an organised massacre of the Jewish people carried out by German Gestapo along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilians throughout Nazi Germany. Civilians? These hate-filled groups moved from one town to the next looking for Jewish synagogues to burn down, and murdered anyone that got in their way while doing it. When they arrived in Ratzeburg, they encountered a problem. There were no Jewish synagogues to burn down. Swoboda pointed out just how far they went to satiate their hatred for the Jewish people. The German Gestapo had found out that while there were no places of worship to burn down in Ratzeburg on that day, there once was, but it now served the town as a food market. So what they did—in all of their hatred—they retroactively annulled the deed of sale and reinstated the market as a place of worship just so that they could burn it down! What a terrifying picture of how far it will take us when we give ourselves to something. In this case hatred. But, when you dig deeper, and read from people like Corrie ten Boom, and many others who lived through these unforgettable historical events about their experience of the time before they were all hauled away and taken to the death camps—amidst the horrors that they share in common—they also share an observation in that it all happened so slowly. That it happened subtly. Men that raped, tortured, and tormented innocent individuals were once “regular folk” that you’d greet in the street on a lovely Sunday afternoon. How did they get there!? Slowly. One moment, one compromise at a time. As grim and as terrifying a picture that is, there is something hopeful about the principle behind it.
Glimmers Of Hope
If this is a picture of how far it will take us when we give ourselves to things of evil, when we give ourselves to hatred, one moment, one compromise at a time, what would it look like to give ourselves to love? Ralph Waldo Emmerson said this, “That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability to do has increased.”
Practice Has Potential
You have no doubt heard about Malcolm Gladwell’s attractive theory he offered in his book ‘Outliers: The Story Of Success’ about the 10 000-hour rule. In a nutshell, he says do something, anything, for 10 000 hours and you will have become an expert at it. Sounds good, fairly easy to remember, except, it is more or less completely false. His theory has since been debunked by scholars. One such man is Swedish physiologist and professor at Florida State University, K. Anders Ericsson. What is agreed on, however, is the more we do something under the right circumstances, therein is the potential to get much better at it. Similar to Gladwell’s theory, but not quite the same. To borrow from a paper that Ericsson wrote on the topic, he said it this way: Gladwell doesn’t differentiate between types of practice, even though it’s a really important distinction. The best way to get better at something is through something known as deliberate practice, which basically means practicing in order to get better: doing activities recommended by experts to develop specific abilities, identifying weaknesses, and working to correct them, and intentionally pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. “This distinction between deliberate practice aimed at a particular goal and generic practice is crucial,” Ericsson says, “because not every type of practice leads to improved ability. You don’t get benefits from mechanical repetition, but by adjusting your execution over and over to get closer to your goal.”
Compromised Compass
While the study offered high emphasis on skills and expertise, the same principles seem to apply when considering matters of character formation. Or, to go back to the topic of conversation that was brought up in class, character solidification. Think of the Night of Broken Glass. Think of Saul (God’s anointed) and weave into it what Ralph Waldo Emmerson said, and imagine for yourself how far you could go, the kind of person you could become, should you give yourself to love and Godly principles and practice daily, living the way that Jesus taught, one moment at a time. Saul’s outcome need not be our own.
If the roots of a tree are the man’s character, the soil the principles by which he lives by, and the fruits of the tree the visible actions of the man’s life, consider the soil of Saul’s life in the beginning of his kingship that produced desirable actions. We saw that he was a family man. We know that he was anointed and empowered by God’s Spirit and he submitted to the authority (God through Samuel) that anointed him. He was a man of humility. Proverbs says humility precedes honor. He was a man of wisdom, that would suggest he was a God-fearing man with little room for fear of man. He was a brave man, full of mercy, forgiving those who rejected him. In the beginning of Saul’s kingship, the soil of Saul’s life had produced courage, integrity, discipline, loyalty, humility, and conviction, to name a few. These are good character qualities found within the seeds of Godly principles that we are called to live by. However, we are given the choice to give ourselves to living by them or not. Saul slowly chose not to.
So, from ancient tales of kings gone bad, Jedi Knights turning to the dark side, and heinous historical events too close to home for us to ignore, perhaps there is merit in pausing to consider for ourselves what the principles are that we live by. Do we in fact live by principle, or do we carry with us mere ideals? Do we know the difference? Where have we compromised? What are the subtleties of life that have managed to corrupt our compasses leading us off-course?
Give Yourself In Love
If these stories have put on display for us how far it is we will go when we give ourselves to something, might we find the hope in the power of practice. And not just any practice, a practice empowered by the Spirit of God. Might we give ourselves to each other in love.
Galatians 5:13-26 says:
“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.” Let us keep in step with the Spirit." The text continues on, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”
Prayer
May we give ourselves to love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness, on the back of self-control, and may we reap from these Kingdom seeds that we sow.
Amen.