We’ve talked a lot about motivation this year, and clearly that’s one of the greatest challenges to living a life that demands excellence, but doesn’t always provide us with regular progress reports on how we’re doing.
One of the biggest issues we often have – just like with physical training is that unless we have a clear-cut goal in front of us with measurable progress points, we may find ourselves wondering if what we’re doing matters at all. Is the work I’m putting in worth it?
Am I really better off now than I was when I started?
What if no one else is putting in the work?
And that can be even harder when we look around and realize that no one else is putting in the work we’re putting in! It’s one thing if we’re training for the Olympics, or we’re professional athletes. We know in those contexts that we’re working toward a different level of accomplishment that requires a whole different level of commitment.
But what if that accomplishment is less dramatic – maybe I just want to be healthy. Maybe I have the dream of competing in a local race because I think it would be fun. Or maybe I just got caught up in a health trend, and since my friends are all doing it, I’ll do it as well.
It’s a lot easier in those situations to justify quitting, or at least not putting in maximum effort. Because we look around at the people who want the same thing as we do, and yet they don’t seem to be working that hard at it.
We might get discouraged because they’re getting much better results with much less effort. Or we might become disillusioned with the goal itself when we see that others really don’t take it that seriously.
Are we discouraged by the failings of others?
In most of those cases, I think we all get that the answer is to keep going – because it’s about my health and not theirs. If my friend is content to eat junk food and smoke cigarettes and neglect physical exercise, then they may or may not suffer adverse effects as a result. But their actions don’t have any impact on me or my ability to take care of myself. And they don’t change the fact that my choices will have an impact on my health, for good or bad.
So why is that we see so many people who do not see this on a spiritual level?
How often do we look around and I see people who are comfortable, who are living lives that they enjoy but who don’t seem committed to sacrificing for the cause of Christ. They aren’t working any harder than the rest of the world, I don’t see a noticeable difference between how they live and how my nice, friendly but non-Christian neighbors are living.
They worship when it’s convenient. They give when we have extra. They’re nice to people who are nice to them. They come, they worship, they leave, and they don’t do anything else related to God until the following week.
At least, that’s our impression of them. We don’t really know in a lot of cases! But if we don’t see it ourselves, we often assume it’s not there. And we ask ourselves why we should do all the things we know we should do – why we should turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, endure the difficulties that come with truly living a Christ-centered life – if no one else seems to be doing it!
Focusing on Jesus, not what others aren’t doing
One of the most cited reasons for leaving the faith is a reaction to the lack of commitment from those around them. When children grow up in homes where serving God is typically superficial, they aren’t going to see the point in honoring what they see as nothing more than a family tradition.
We often criticize people who renounce God because they don’t want worship with a bunch of hypocrites. But do we understand how difficult it is to maintain a faith when you perceive that no one else is doing it, either?
The actions of our brothers and sisters in Christ plays a huge role in whether we’ll remain faithful to God. That’s why so much is written in scripture about exhorting each other, encouraging each other, holding each other accountable for our lives and our choices.
We are called not to create stumbling blocks for each other – we live our lives not just thinking about our own faith, but how our faith is either helping or damaging someone else.
The reason this is so common is because people don’t live up to the standard of Christ – none of us do! And if we’re taking cues from people around us, it’s easy to either settle in to what we perceive to be the middle of the pack spiritually – where we don’t stand out too much, don’t look too odd or out of place, but we’re still ahead of a lot of people, so we can still feel like we’re accomplishing something.
“What is that to you? Follow me!”
The challenge is that while we run the race together, we’re judged individually. Jesus made that point constantly while he was on the earth, pointing his disciples’ attention back inwardly every time they started looking around them.
When people asked him about the sinfulness of men who had died in an accident, his answer essentially was “you worry about YOUR relationship to God.” Whether they were righteous or not won’t change how God sees you!
When Peter learned that he was going to suffer and die in the service of Jesus, he asked “What about John?” Jesus responded, “What is that to you? You follow me.”
In the sermon on the mount, Jesus told his listeners that “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of Heaven.” He didn’t mean that the scribes and pharisees were the bar by which they would be measured. He meant that you can’t settle for what religion looks like around you – even when it’s practiced by people who ought to be excelling in their service to God.
Your standard is the word of God, not the behavior of other people.
Paul wrote later that when people measure themselves by themselves or by each other, they are without understanding. We have to remember that as well. Because as Paul wrote to Timothy, “if we are faithless, he remains faithful.”
The idea that people around us aren’t living godly lives doesn’t nullify God’s command that we live godly lives.
So let’s continue to encourage each other, keep striving to conform ourselves to the image of Christ, not the image of the flawed people around us, who may be doing the best they can do just like we are, but fall short just like we do. We know the grace of God is there for us if we’re willing to live as if we want it. Don’t be discouraged, keep training for godliness!
