Character – Do You Have It?

September 10, 2024

You have no doubt heard someone referred to as “a character.” It is used to refer to a memorable personality, a personality that has some unusual and memorable qualities. We are all familiar with that.

But character is a much weightier word than that. Character is the mental and moral qualities distinctive to a person, according to the dictionary. Good character is a pre-decision to do what is right. When a person pre-decides or predetermines what a decision will be, the decision is not dependent on circumstances or situations. The variables do not matter. The choice comes from a moral place. How we will respond is already decided.

Real character, good character, is the will to do what is right even when it is hard and costly.

Your character is who you truly are. Your character will to a large degree impact how much you accomplish in this life. It will make or break every single relationship. Accomplishing great things is far less about the talent and intelligence we possess than the character we possess.

Saturday, September 1, 2024, the sports world saw an astonishing display of character at the PGA Tour Championship. Golfer Sahith Theegala hit out of a bunker on the third hole. He was at the front of the pack in contention, but he felt on his backswing, he might've brushed the sand. He wasn't 100% sure. Nobody really noticed. The HD cameras did not catch it.

But touching the sand is against the rules. Though no one else noticed, Theegala noticed. He immediately told his playing partner and called a rules official over. They talked, but in the end, he called a two-stroke penalty on himself for an infraction only he could see, that he believed he saw. Had he played it off when it happened, nobody would have ever noticed. But he also knew that was not in his character.

"I didn't feel it, but I saw something. I thought I saw some sand move right as I took it back. There was no intent. If anything, I brushed a few grains of sand. The rule is a two-shot penalty for changing the lie. Unfortunately, the intent doesn’t matter. ... But I think I moved it. I think I saw it, and we've played a lot of golf, and your intuition as a golfer is very rarely wrong," he said.

Asked about it later, Theegala said he had to call the penalty on himself. If he had not, "I wouldn't be able to sleep. No matter what the outcome was. ... But I'm pretty sure I breached the rules and I'm paying the price for it, and I feel good about it.” Character feels good.

How much did his character cost him? The cost to Theegala was $2.5 million. Those two strokes would've left him in a tie for second and earned him more tour points. But again, you have to consider that golf is known to be largely a mental game. Could he have played the rest of the tournament as well without a clean heart and clear conscience?

One might say that Theegala did well anyway. Yes, he did. He won $7.5 million for his tour performance. But when he made the decision to turn himself in for the penalty, he didn’t know that would be the outcome. He pre-decided that his character would always come first, and it made not turning himself in for the penalty an impossible choice.

So, what about you? What is your character worth to you?

What if in life, politics, work, relationships, every choice, we responded with predetermined character like that even if it cost us?

He who walks in integrity and with moral character walks securely, but he who takes a crooked way will be discovered and punished. Proverbs 10:9 AMP