day 1008: Bad Comes Easily

"Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve."

Ever notice how hard the work is to make something good happen but how easily the bad things happen?  Nowhere in business is this probably more true than in the efforts to achieve great quality.  To make it perfect each and every time is really hard work, but with just the slightest slip, miss, or imperfection the whole quality thing goes right out the door. Sometimes, it is just as simple as being on time.  A few weeks ago I was waiting for a company that was coming to the house to do some installation work.  The day before they confirmed the time they would be there. This was good. the next day, after a half hour of waiting past the appointed time, I emailed, to ask where they were?  This was bad. I got an immediate response that they were getting ready to pull in my driveway. That was funny as I was standing in my driveway waiting for them.  15 minutes later they arrived.  This was bad. Now, my afternoon was shot and I was pushing back and cancelling other things (messing up other people) and worse, they were so behind that they were going to make up the time in my appointment and they visibly rushed to the point that I wondered if they were being thorough or not.  That is the way of good turning to bad; it is hard and takes discipline and commitment to be consistently good.  But, bad comes easily so we have to work just as hard to protect ourselves from making that one slip that can ruin or damage the reputation of the company and ourselves.

Our spiritual life can feel the same. Is it not easy to live the life that Jesus asked us to live.  He said it Himself multiple times.  And on the other side, it seems so easy to live the life that is the opposite. What it comes down to is that this life of following Jesus is an active one.  We cannot be passive and expect that we will stay in the good.  God gave us the power of choice and the price of that choice is that we have to want and actively pursue it.  Don't get me wrong, we don't work for our salvation. It is without doubt a gift.  But like on Christmas morning as kids we didn't lie in bed in the morning and wait for the gifts to come to us, we sprinted to the Christmas tree to see what was there. It was our great President Abraham Lincoln who said, "People do what they want to do."  That is our choice today.  To work hard for the good or let the bad come to us easily.

Reference: Joshua 24:15 (NKJV)