Paying the price

In a scene in Les Miserables, the escaped convict Jean Valjean, who has by now become a respectable mayor, comes to know that another person has been wrongly arrested for Valjean's own crimes.  As Valjean struggles with his conscience, he sings:

Why should I save his hide?  Why should I right this wrong, when I have come so far and struggled for so long?

 If I speak, I am condemned; If I stay silent, I am damned!

 I am the master of hundreds of workers. They all look to me.
How can I abandon them? How would they live if I am not free?

 How can I ever face my fellow men?  How can I ever face myself again?  My soul belongs to God, I know I made that bargain long ago.  He gave me hope when hope was gone; He gave me strength to journey on

 [Then appearing in court to confess his true identity] Who am I?  Who am I? I am Jean Valjean!

Like the escaped convict Jean Valjean made good, I made that bargain with God too.  Today, by God's grace - His undeserved mercy - this pardoned sinner has a family, a career and a ministry.

My family relies on me as a husband, father, son and provider.  I enjoy my work, I really do, and the daily opportunity to talk to people, get to know them, even make my small contribution to help them grow.  I love my church cell family - learning from each other's example, supporting each other in life's travails, and moving forward together in service, and to share Christ's love with the big wide world.

But each day, there are new challenges which God offers to me - the challenge to save others, to right wrongs.  But now that I am respectable, it seems ever more reasonable to ask, "Why should I... when I have come so far and struggled for so long?" or "I am the master of [family, career, ministry] they all look to me, how can I abandon them?"


Today, each of us are facing some God-given challenge or other.  Seek it out if you don't know what it is, because it is certainly there to be done, and done by you.  Ephesians 2:10 explains in no uncertain terms - "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Perhaps He is calling you to stand up for a social issue, as I wrote in my previous post.  To rationally, sensibly, and most important, lovingly, speak the truth, and not to be kiasu, kiasi, and kia dai ji.  To choose not to leave the problem to our children, by which time it may be too late.

Or perhaps it is to courageously choose to do the right thing in your workplace on some ethical issue.  Or to speak to an old friend or family member about his or her life, and how God is calling out with love.  Or to make peace with an enemy.  Each of these things can cost us our reputation, our pride, our relationships, our livelihoods, and certainly our time and energy.  It's tempting to leave it to someone else to do these tough things.  Make it someone else's problem.

But as King David said in 1 Chronicles 21:24 "No, I insist on paying the full price...  I will not offer a burnt sacrifice that costs me nothing."

Why?  Because, as has been said before, if a man's principles cost his nothing, they aren't worth very much.  If it costs me nothing, the truth is that I'm probably not giving or doing enough, and the reason for that in turn, is probably because I'm not making it important enough to me.

Standing up for something is often painful, sometimes embarrassing.  It's not something I enjoy.  But it's a proper test for me as to whether I can walk the talk.

Philippians 2:2-3 says "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.  Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of the others."  Today, as I consider "Why should I?" I remember this exhortation.  As this lovely prayer in the Living Life devotional says - may I always seek to make Your name extraordinary instead of my own.  In the midst of all my weaknesses and flaws and excuses, help me to live up to that Lord!


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