Having lately considered the topic of judgment, I feel inspired to address another aspect thereof. Of late, many of the people I know have told me of noble pursuits to which they devoted themselves for a period of years in lieu of other equally noble options that leave me wondering why. I suppose the true issue to which I ought pay attention is that they chose a noble path.
All of the individuals of which I can currently think chose noble paths. One enters USMC boot camp today. Another will depart in a few weeks to serve as a missionary in a foreign land. One chose to limit herself to a 500 calorie/day diet as a means to combat years of wanton weight gain. Serving God, country, and health are all noble goals. I do not think in their circumstances I would have made those choices, but I know I am not in their circumstances, so honestly I cannot say what I can do. All I can say is why I would not do that thing at this time.
On the other hand, I know people who chose to do those exact same things for the wrong reasons- mostly as a means to run away from reality or from the person/situation in which they find themselves. When the choice is between bad and good, it’s clearly obvious that one ought choose the good, but when the choice is between good, better, and best, what do we miss out on?
Scriptures tell us that a man giving a gift grudgingly is treated by God as if he retained the gift. I know that when I served as a missionary that these particular devotees bothered me the most, because I felt they “got in the way” of those of us who really cared. Ironically, they are all doing better than I am in most aspects of life, especially in those most easily quantified, and so it would seem that mine is the faulty logic. I am he who is bereft of wife and children, only just last year in a job that wasn’t dead end, and he who is least happy among his peers.
I made the choices I made in life in order to be square with God. For the most part, I made many choices a matter of prayer and fasting while I weighed out options and measured the expected outcomes. I defer on the side of obedience to the law, even when I prefer to do otherwise, and I trust in God to save me both from myself and from things that will be to my detriment. Not everything has turned out like I expected it to, and it would seem in many instances that justice has been denied me, but I trust as always that “what should be will be when the time is right” for my having done the best I can to do right things for the right reasons.
For everyone else, as I mentioned yesterday, it’s neither mine to discern nor in my power to grant them according to the purity of their motives. As CS Lewis says, you cannot long endure the practice of right without gradually becoming the way you pretend to be. So, while I begrudge the choices of others that put upon me inconveniences in the moment they chose to do something good against their will, things generally worked out for the best for everyone. Eventually, practice of righteous principles really does make perfect even if you didn’t start out that way.
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