Josh Brage

Character. Character is such a funny thing. It means a lot of different things to people. Sure there are the basics – no stealing, don’t kill anyone, watch your mouth, etc. . . But what does it mean to you? What does it mean to God?

I have been very challenged by Judi’s recent posts. She is so full of character and passion for God and she is allowing it to bleed through completely on her blog. She is open, honest, vulnerable. That is remarkably inspiring to me. I am not sure that I can ever get to the same places of vulnerability that she does, but I do want to try harder on this blog to bring who I am to you all. I was talking through some thoughts about leadership with Mama T and some quotes came to mind:

How do you change the world? One life at a time.
How do you change a life? One heart at a time.
How do you change a heart? You start with yours.

If you want to impress people, share your successes.
If you want to impact them, share your failures.

I started with that random paragraph about character because I very much think that vulnerability is a character trait. In my life, I am striving to increase my influence. I want to impact people! I want them to get around my life and be driven closer to God. I want them to be inspired to go do great things! I want people to be in my life and be completely different a year later! That is what I want.

Why do I want that? Some of it is selfish. Some of it is passion for them. Who knows? But it is what I want.

The only way that I am going to be able to impact people is if I can maintain a standard of openness and authenticity. That is why a blog is such an interesting outlet. It is a constant challenge to put your life out there for people to glean from.

Back to the character thing, there are 2 big things that I consider a major part of Godly character. I identified them way back in the final part of my first year in Master’s. By my judgment, I am a 23 year old guy. I am called. I have some gifts. I have a lot of heart and passion for the Kingdom. I am very raw. I am brash, cocky, arrogant and sometimes just a pain in the butt. However, I figure that if I can get these 2 big things right, then I will be alright in the end.

1. Submit to Authority
By my assessment this is key. God wants to speak to me! He wants to speak to you! He will do it in a lot of ways, but it seems like in my life He does it primarily through the Godly men that He places over me. If I can continue to be correctable and in submission, I will be blessed. I will be blessed by the anointing that God has placed on those men. I will be blessed by a successful ministry. I will be blessed. Period.

2. Teachable
These two go hand in hand for my life. If I can stay quiet and keep my heart willing to be corrected and willing to admit that I don’t have the best way to do – I will be just fine. I want to keep learning. I want to grow as a leader. I want to grow as a man. I want to grow in how I deal with people. I want to grow in my ability to minister. I want to continue to grow in every area of my life. The ONLY way I can grow is if I continue to realize that I have not figured it all out. I want very badly to keep learning.

I think that I will blog some more about this over the weekend. But what do you think?