Pastoral Thought--January 13

I wondered today, why do we do the right thing? 

Forgetting what that right thing looks like, or how we define it, or any other self created criteria that could define and support our understanding of the right thing, I wonder about the right thing and its occurrence in our lives… In our current relative, pluralistic, and yet intensely personal culture, being able to determine what the ‘right thing’ is, I suspect can be challenging at times. Whether we agree or not, the people who invaded the US Capital building felt they were doing the right thing. But were they? 

Let’s stop and think about this idea for a few moments. There are a lot of questions that come to mind at this point: 

First, once we make a decision about what the ‘right thing’ is, do we practice, or implement, that the right thing so that someone will notice? Someone close to us. . . someone at work. . . The person, or family, next door. . . Does my choice of behavior and/or action take shape so that I will receive the praise and glory because of some level of personal holiness or piety? As I stop looking only at myself, I wonder about my faith walk with God as I try to live faithfully. As I consider my faith walk, I wonder, is right living done so that God will take notice of me? Or the church will see my right living choices? Is this my attempt to stand out among all of creation before God? Again that can be a self-elevating practice or stance. Do I want a blessing because I choose to live a certain way? Do I do the ‘right things’ in my life, or make the right choice, for selfish gain only? Or is that choice made so that I will feel better when I find myself mired in sin and choices that I should not have made? 

So there’re any number of internal reasons that I might choose to live rightly and few of them take me first to concepts of faithfulness. 

I was sitting in my car this morning waiting for an early appointment to take place. While I waited, I was listening to the podcast: Mind of the Warrior. The title of the episode that I was listening to was: “Welcome to 2021! Or maybe its 2020 2.0.” The host of the show is a special forces veteran and emergency room physician who lives in Texas with his family. About every couple weeks, Dr. Mike releases a show where he talks for about 45-minutes about what’s on his mind and what’s happening in the world around us. 

On today’s show, the focus was on not making New Year’s Resolutions. Dr. Mike hates them. 

As an avid practicer of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for many years, Dr. Mike says that he gets very frustrated by people cluttering up his local gym when he is trying to work safely during the pandemic. They make it hard for him to remain safe and practice the type of living the the feels called to. He says, “I know that I won’t see these people after mid-February because they are not committed to changing their lives. And it just frustrates me.” 

Listening to the show, I began to wonder about why do we do what we perceive as the right thing for only a short amount of time? For the people Mike is referring to in his show, they are doing the right thing because it is ‘what we are supposed to do each year.’ But that is not a commitment, or the beginning of a commitment, it's actually going along with the crowd. It is doing the right thing because everyone around me says that is what we do or what we are supposed to do. But where is the long-lasting, life-changing, faith-grounding moment or experience? 

And I wonder again about you, how do you define the right thing in light of trying to live faithfully as a Christian? Do you go along with the crowd because that is what the church does? Do you practice your faith so that you can learn more from God and about God? I wonder if we lived this way, if our commitments were first and foremost to God, how that might change how we engage the ‘right thing?’

Blessings

Rev. Derek