When we're physically tired we rest. When we're emotionally tired we seek an escape. We can run from our jobs, our obligations and our relationships to find respite and return with new hope and commitment.
But what do you do when you grow weary of doing good? Where can you escape the call to virtue? Is there a moral vacation we are entitled to somewhere along the road?
Some claim such opportunities exist. Many seem to think you get a free pass during your college years to plummet into a moral tailspin in the name of "exploration and independence" aka "the search for oneself." Places like Vegas act as an ethical black hole that promises, however falsely, confidentiality and absolution as you leave. Are we allowed to make occasional visits to these debaucherous playgrounds when propriety is a weight we can longer bear?
I'm sure there are many who would disagree with me but I have to believe the answer is no. There have been so many times when I wished I felt otherwise but I can't escape the gnawing sense that the call to virtue is a consistent one.
I have watched friends go through some really heartbreaking phases of life lately and my own black and white world has become alarmingly gray. When your heart is so broken you wonder if it still exists or what once was so clear is now so cloudy it's easy to give up hope and take the path of least resistance. But I've found that it rarely serves us well. We usually end up in more trouble or deeper despair and our moral compass becomes weak and misleading.
As much as I may wish for a destination free of consequence, it does not exist. Our call to do good has no exemption or loophole. We will never rise to the occasion perfectly but we must not grow weary. It is an obligation judged not by the practicality of our success but the purity of our effort.
4 months ago
3 comments:
I happened upon your blog while surfing. It sounds like you have had a pretty tough year, hang tight, it will get better. I understand the job thing, I have been living with uncertainty since Dec but finally it has resolved. I found this poem of Mother Teresa's which was what I needed to be reminded of during the stress and turmoil at work, which overflows into your private life too. Here is the link for it on my blog, it might lift your spirits. http://soanywaytoday.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/408/
i hope sunshine and happiness fills the rest of your days in 2009
I was just reading in James 2 about always doing good. It does get wearisome. Part of it is the energy and concentration, other parts are the difficult people who may need the "good." I'd agree that there is no respite and if we push through the tendency to back off, we discover a newer blessing that helps not the benefactor but also the giver.
Thanks, Ginger. Today was a wearisome day, and I recalled this blog post. Rereading it gave me much needed encouragement and reinforcement of my values, especially as I go through college myself.
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