If reputation is a shadow - what is the substance?
Transcript
[Gary Petty] Solomon wrote, "A good name is more desirable than riches" (Proverbs 22:1). Of course, what he meant by that is, your reputation is very important. Everyone has a reputation. Your reputation is what other people think of you and what they say about you. It's interesting that businesses, politicians, organizations hire specially trained communicators to try to protect their reputation – what other people think about them, what other people say about them. And it's true that a good reputation can be destroyed with one event or one action. And a bad reputation – it can stick with you for a lifetime. You know, we've known people that made a mistake, maybe gone to prison when they were young, and it's years later, and they still can't maybe get a job or do certain things because of that bad reputation.
Abraham Lincoln said this about reputation. He said, "Character is like a tree, and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing." You see, character is learning the right thing, character is knowing the right thing, and then it's doing the right thing.
If you try to build a reputation on something that you're not, you're just creating a shadow. You know the problem with shadows, when someone turns on the light? The shadow goes away. So instead of being overly concerned with your reputation – and let's face it, there's people out there today that just love destroying people's reputations. Yes, we should be concerned, but be concerned on where that shadow comes from. Concern yourself on creating right, Christian character, and then your reputation will be the real thing.
