Doing the right thing... joyfully!


My core function at work is to get people to do the right thing.  Experience shows that writing rules, regulations and standard operating procedures is important, but doesn't get you the desired result in the end - people will find loopholes and go astray if they don't buy in.  So, what's truly essential is what is known as "tone from the top" and "organizational culture" to do the right thing.  Leaders, and their people, have got to want to do the right thing.  All the rules, regulations and procedures in the world won't help otherwise.

This principle applies to life in general too.  I have always thought of myself as a logical, somewhat non-empathetic person.  I've been even proud of this - living life based on principle, doing the right thing, even if I don't like it, simply because it is the right thing to do (though even in this I still struggle!).  But all this time, I've always recognized that even as I choose to do the right thing, it's often because it's what I think a good person would do, and not so much because I myself want to do it.

I just read from the 40 Days of Prayer guide about the famous author Leo Tolstoy, who apparently tried to do what is good by the book, by dressing down, praying, renouncing violence, relinquishing his rights, helping the poor.  Yet his wife observed in her diary that "There is so little genuine warmth about him; his kindness does not come from his heart, but from his principles".

I don't think I've even managed to become as good as Tolstoy i.e. at least try to obey God radically.  But in one thing I am equally guilty - and that is in doing good, I often do so with insufficient joy, not from my heart, but only from my own principles, perhaps afraid that in the eyes of others, and even in my own eyes, I might fall short of meeting expectations.  This is a tiring way to live - always trying to live to my own expectations, or worse, others!

I'm not saying that obedience is not important.  It absolutely is.  In fact Jesus specifically says "If you love me, obey my commandments" John 14:15. 

So obedience is essential.  But, I do also need to learn to love and be joyful as I do the right thing.  1 Corinthians 13:1-3 famously says "If I speak in the tongue of men or of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing".

How do I become less robotic, more empathetic, less transactional, more relational?  The short answer is that there's nothing I can do by my own strength or desire - but only to continually recognize and receive God's love for me and let it overflow.  1 John 4:10-11 says "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." 

I remember today that God loves me.  More love than I can even imagine!  Awesome love!  And I want to draw near to Him every waking moment, so that His love overcomes my  joyless "by the book" obedience, and overflows in my life. 

God, with Your overflowing love, help me to love my family, my friends and colleagues more.  May I no longer be merely a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal, but instead walk through life in joyful and victorious obedience to all the good works He has prepared in advance for me to do (Ephesians 2:10).  Now this, is an awesome way to live!

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