Sweet Character

“Character, like a photograph, develops in darkness.” Yousuf Karsh

I tried a new dessert recently. In the spirit of summer, the restaurant created something they called a chocolate smore’s cake or something equally as descriptive. I love a good dessert, and this restaurant has several. In fact, they have all my favorites. This was not one of them.

The moist, dark chocolate cake was a decent cake. But it was just cake. They added toasted marshmallows, a graham cracker, and chocolate sauce to it. The entire time I was eating it, I was developing the plan for how the restaurant could have made the dessert a winner. Instead, it was overly sweet just for being sweet. Really sweet, rich even, is great when the dessert’s quality matches the level of sweetness. This one was simply too sweet for what it was, a chocolate cake.

Sweet can work the same way in our writing. When we create sweet characters, who always do sweet things, and everything about their story is sweet, well, it’s just sweet. There’s no substance to get a reader hooked on the story. There’s no drama. There’s no growth.

The darkness is where the story comes from. We don’t have to delve into the twisted to accomplish this. Darkness can be defined as the thing that must be overcome. Maybe the character has been betrayed or abandoned. No matter what else is happening in the story their darkness to overcome is being trapped by those feelings. It could be a physical obstacle like the journey to find success. Maybe it’s a lack of faith. The roadblock in your character’s way can be anything, but it isn’t going to be sweet. It’s going to be difficult in some way, and through it your character will mature. They will learn about themselves and the world they live in. And just as importantly, they will become part of a story people want to read.

Trouble doesn’t have to bring destruction to our characters, and it doesn’t have to bring it to us either. While we may not relish going through the more dramatic parts of our personal stories, they are not without merit for the believer. Scripture promises us there is good for us in them if we let God work in us and through us. James 1:2-4 tells us, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Pair it with Romans 5 which tells us trials leads to perseverance but then takes it further to explain that perseverance brings character which brings hope.  Being mature, complete, of good character, and full of hope are things I think we would all say we want. But the path to have them is through the darkness. It’s the testing of our faith that builds more faith in us.

Do I look forward to the next trial in my life? Not really. Most of the time they hit before the previous one is even finished. Sometimes I’d like a break in between. But that doesn’t seem to be God’s plan for my life right now. And that’s okay too. Because one day I pray others will be able to look at the story of my life and see how the darkness shaped me for God’s use.  They’ll look and see while the story may not have always been sweet, the end result was beautifully so.

By the Book: Do you fight God in the darkness or pray for Him to grow you through those times?