You’ve Got Personality
Within each person there is unexpressed potential and unexplained passion. There is a purity of thought and yearning that is obscured by our deeds and unknown to all except ourselves. Such reality has been called, among other things, the “inner self.” Seldom do people see what we really are, and we rarely take time to explain (as if they cared). Though largely unseen, occasionally, the inner self will make an appearance. One may be in mixed company and, in an off-handed manner, wistfully sigh, “I always wanted to learn to play the piano.” There it is. An unexpressed desire found its voice. That is the inner self expressing a repressed or overlooked ambition. Though what I describe is merely a pastime, each person also has desires to achieve and an eye for excellence that is often obscured in the course of life.
The inner self may well express such nobility as is incongruent with actuality. This purity of our best moments is the reason that many view humanity as inherently good. How else could such thoughts derive? Such musings are a common thread by which we recognize one another, and, so, we believe that inherent goodness must be. This longing for worth is a part of our personality and not to be overlooked. But it is only part. Personality is not happy thoughts. What happens so that our best self is unrecognizable?
As we live, we are constantly failing of our desires. Limitations from many sources are imposed, and we are not able to accomplish all we would like. This creates great frustration. We make mistakes and do deliberate wrongs causing additional grief. There are enemies without and enemies within. At some point we stop looking for “Mr. Right” and settle for “Mr. Good Enough.” Sometimes, even often perhaps, it is the path of wisdom to retool, but, whenever we suffer a setback, we hurt and our outlook is affected. The scars of failure affect our deeds and self-confidence to our dying day. Our personality is developing, we were something, but our deeds also make us something.
Of course, no one experiences only failure in life. The positive strokes we receive along the way contribute to optimism and self-esteem which serve in future endeavors. Truthfully, we need failure and success in measure to give both happiness in life and empathy for others. We are products of our thoughts and deeds, but not all personality is self-inflicted. Great turmoil or affirmation often comes beyond our control. For good or bad, such influences greatly shape our future. In backwards fashion, sometimes the bad events of life turn to great good. It is the combination of what we are genetically, what we desire ideally and what we become experientially that is our personality.
In time, the deeds and experiences of life form a crust over the inner self, limiting expression. We have a personality, but what we express routinely may not be what we desire supremely. What we are is not reflective of our inner self. The conflict brings great unrest and negative traits begin to surface in the life. Some have more difficulty that others, but this is the common experience. Great joy is also a possibility, and, for that, we give great thanks.
It is impossible to say that our actions are not part of our personality. By definition, personality is an ethereal thing, and, so, it may be common to think that personality is primarily thoughts, intents and desires. However, thoughts and deeds interconnect so that each produces the other. They are both parts of the whole, and changing one can, eventually, lead to change in the other. To make the understanding firm, good and evil are thoughts but not merely so. They become concrete in the doing- more good or more evil. God judges our thoughts, but He is the only one so capable. Expression molds us, giving appearance to what we are. Our goals are certainly higher than our deeds, but we cannot claim to be other than our deeds.
Man is essentially a dichotomy- one part body, one part spirit. Combined, man is a soul. I believe in the creation of Adam and Eve by God, and their placement in the Garden of Eden. They were perfect until they sinned. When they fell, creation fell, death began its relentless march and all was defiled. In the process of time, genetics were affected, and the human race began to suffer physically and otherwise. We will never know the extent to which genetic predilections affect personality development. As representatives of the race, when Adam and Eve sinned, the tendency toward sin became part and parcel of us all. It leads us naturally toward selfishness and away from God. This is the sinful nature. We all are sinners by nature and sinners by choice (We don’t teach children to lie- we teach them to tell the truth.). This sinful nature does not preempt the pure desires we may have in the collective loneliness we feel without God.
God made us one way, and we became something else. Our personalities are the collection of our desires and experiences in the path of life. We all have good and bad qualities in the eyes of society. In the eyes of God, even the good things of humanity are far short of true worth. The Bible says, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” I do not believe in the basic goodness of man. I believe in the basic sinfulness of man. There is a void in every life, however, and a spark of what could be. This is God-given. We ought not be too hard on each other. None of us are very good. Realizing this, God could have done away with the human experiment, but He chose another way of dealing with depravity. Into the darkened world, He sent the Savior.
Sterl
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