The Right Thing.
The problem with doing the right thing the right thing is usually whether or not you have the strength to do it, not the question of what it is to do. However, today it can be hard to even recognize the right thing to do. I can’t help you with the strength to do it, but I can help you find it. The right thing to do often has most, if not all, the characteristics listed below.
It’s the hardest thing to do
It’s the simplest thing to do
It’s the opposite of what everyone else is doing
It’s the opposite of what the status quo is
It disappoints the powerful, popular people
It’s best for others, but not me
It comes at personal cost
It is the least desirable decision from all the options available
It eases your conscience, and disturbs your pride
It honors God
Being a good leader, soldier, businessman, husband, father, or friend are often the same as being a good man. But not always. And coming is the day when you’ll have to choose between the two. Most will choose the first. Choose the latter, because being a good leader is a concept that changes based on cultural emphases and modern trends. And culture is notorious for getting it wrong. Same with all those nouns, soldier or father or husband, or any other blanket term. What gains you the approval of the masses today may be the very same thing that the crowd nails you on a cross for tomorrow. The idea of success changes from time to time and culture to culture. Being a good man does not. There are few constants in history, they are scarcer than love and any precious ore, but once of those few constants are good men. Everyone knows what they are, it’s just that the words we describe them with change over time, all language does, but what they are remains the same regardless of our capacity to describe them.
Consider the phrase “a great man”. What comes to mind? Undoubtedly a conqueror, an orator, artist, inventor, any manner of famous achiever. A great man today may be hated today, and the hated man today be praised tomorrow. Now consider a good man. Based off of the adjectives, you’d assume that a great man is better than a good one. But we immediately understand that great men are often narcissistic, evil, exploitative. Good men are humble, self sacrificial, kind, strong of spirit. Great men are known for the effect they have on the world, be it positive or negative. Good men are known for the effect they have on others and standing up to evil. Being a good soldier is not always being a good man. Being a good man often disappoints the world, even your family and friends. Good men often need to stand alone. Atticus Finch suffered greatly for doing the right thing. Batman allows himself to be hated by Gotham City to do the right thing. Jesus disappointed His people during His life on Earth to do the right thing. The greatest pain of being a good man isn’t the sacrifice, it isn’t the hate people show you, it’s being misunderstood. It’s being killed by the people you’re trying to save. I haven’t had to make a decision like this yet. But it’s coming.
I am sharing this with you now, so that when the time comes, someone will be there who will remind me of what I’ve wrote today. Someone will tell me to go left when everyone else goes right. To lose so that I can give to someone else. To let myself be hated. To let myself be killed. To let myself be misunderstood. When that time comes, tell me my own words. Justin, in the future, the love of men is fleeting. The love of Christ lasts forever. That’s what makes a good man. The time is coming when you’ve have to choose between the approval of man, and the approval of Christ.