They can’t seem to settle on the best reason
To do the right thing.
Some say it is so that you won’t get in trouble.
Others focus on the importance of setting a good example.
Others still, on how it is necessary for maturing in godliness.
And some on how we’ll be rewarded for it in Heaven.
But what I hardly ever hear anyone say
Is that the best reason to do the right thing
Is that it is the right thing to do.
No, they all seem to be focused
On what they’ll get for it,
As if in some transactional economy.
And in my view, they are missing the fact
That doing the right thing
Is a treasure unto itself
That choosing righteousness was
Our very raison d’être
On this Earth.
And I think this is likely why
So many are always falling away
From doing the right thing,
And can’t seem to weather a storm.
They often see doing the right thing
Not as a glory and a privilege in its own right,
But as a drudgery that is necessary
For no other reason than to win
Some other benefit that may not seem
So important when the storm is raging.
“Any port in a storm”, and so on.
But I have come to believe
With increasing conviction
That it would be better to die righteous
In the storm, if need be,
Than to take shelter in wicked waters,
As if my safety were a more important
Matter than my character.
And the lack of this conviction,
It seems to me, is why others can’t hold true
When the storms put their fair-weather
Convictions to the test.
For them, doing the right thing is
A fair-weather proposition.
And all bets are off when the seas rise.
And I will dare to believe that I have
Managed to get this idea on straight,
Though the storms will surely test me, too.
And God will see better than me
When and where I have faltered in it.
