Don’t Skip Character

“…but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

• Romans 5:3-4

I see a lot of motivational material about perseverance through suffering (maybe a focus on the self-induced sufferings of workouts, hustle-lifestyle, external success, etc). I also see a lot of marketing material about hope.

I don’t see much about the importance of character. Character feels underrated in the zeitgeist at the moment. 

What Paul reminds us of here is that character is the connector between perseverance and hope. You don’t get to hope without going through character.

Don’t skip character.