Doing the Right Thing: Even when it Seems to be of Little Effect

          Have you ever done the right thing and seemingly been penalized for doing it?  Probably you are thinking – many times.  We do not always see immediate success or rewards for our efforts.  Rewards may come later, but often they do not come at all.  You can be a fine employee who arrives early and stays late and works hard and makes few mistakes and yet the person whose work ethic is the total opposite of yours gets the promotion ahead of you or, in some cases, gets to keep their job while you lose yours!  I have known people who smoked all their lives who never got cancer and others who did not smoke who did get cancer.  I have seen obese persons without diabetes and heart disease and thin people who exercised regularly with both.  I have seen some unscrupulous people prosper and some saintly and honest people suffer.  Doing the right thing often does not translate into joyful bliss or measurable reward in this present world.

          As believers in Christ, we have to ask ourselves a very important question.  The question is, ‘How committed am I to doing the right thing(s)?’  Will you do what is right even if no one else notices; if they notice but do not care; if you are punished for standing for or doing what is right?  The Lord said that even when we are reviled, persecuted, and all sorts of evil is spoken against us we still are to “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is our reward in heaven.” (Mat. 5:12)  He even goes on to remind them that even God’s Prophets suffered persecution and immense pain for doing exactly what God purposed for them to do.  The idea that somehow life will be easy, painless, and glamorous if we do what is right and follow God is foreign to the New Testament.  Jesus told his disciples that “You will be hated by all for My name’s sake.” (Mat. 10:22)  It may not seem to us a pretty picture, however beauty is subjective.  Someone has said “Pain and suffering are inevitable, but misery is optional.” (unknown)  The Apostles, we are told, departed from the presence of the counsel “Rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name sake.”  (Acts 5:41)  When Paul and Silas were imprisoned and before a great earthquake occurred which freed them, they were not moaning and groaning and complaining but instead were “praying and singing hymns of praise to God.” (Acts 16:25)  It has been observed “The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything, but they make the best of what they have.” (unknown)

          One of my favorite songs by country great Martina McBride is a song called “Anyway.”  The song reminds me to keep it all in perspective. (Listen here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCPw05MkabA )

               You can spend your whole life buildin’ Somethin’ from nothin’

               One storm can come and blow it all away; build it anyway.

               You can chase a dream that seems so out of reach;

               and you know it might not ever come your way; dream it anyway.

                  Chorus

                  God is great, but sometimes life ain’t good;

                  When I pray it doesn’t always turn out like I think it should;

                  But I do it anyway; I do it anyway.

                  This world’s gone crazy and it’s hard to believe;

                  That tomorrow will be better than today; Believe it anyway.

                  You can love someone with all your heart; for all the right reasons

                  And in a moment they can choose to walk away; love ‘em anyway.

                  Chorus

                  You can pour your soul out singing a song you believe in;

                  That tomorrow they’ll forget you ever sang; sing it anyway; yeah, sing it anyway.

                  I sing, I dream, I love, anyway.

 

                  Chorus

          Sometimes it seems like nothing we are doing is accomplishing any good at all.  Sometimes we even feel as though prayer is an empty exercise with our words just bouncing off the walls and ceiling, but we must do it anyway.  There must be an internal compulsion that drives us to do what is right simply because it is right.  The rewards of this life, even if we are to receive any, are perishing.  The vast majority of awards I have ever received in my life have either been broken, thrown away, lost in a move, or given to a charitable organization.  But the one reward I am not taking lightly is the one that I will receive from my Lord.  That one has meaning!  That is the one that makes everything else I have gone through, am going through, and will go through worth it!

 

In Christ,

Dr. Allen Raynor, Pastor