Doin' The Right Thing

It is the question that should pop into your mind a dozen times a day…

Am I doing the right thing?

One of my favorite phrases is---“Right is right even if everyone is against it…and wrong is wrong even if everyone is for it.” James 1:12 says “Happy is the man who doesn’t give in and do wrong when he is tempted…for afterward he will get his reward.”

I don’t let other people decide what’s right in my life. I decide and while I might ask for advice from trusted colleagues….I don’t procrastinate much. In 54 years….I have pretty much decided what is right and wrong for me.

The author, John L. Mason, says you cannot do the right thing too soon, for you never know when it will be too late. I’ve found that successful people understand that no one makes it to the top in a single bound. What sets them apart is their willingness to keep putting one step in front of the other, no matter how rough the terrain. We are what we repeatedly do.

This week I was the commencement speaker for 30 inmates who earned their degrees inside the Texas Correctional System. I love to tell them that I didn’t get my bachelors degree until I was 29----that I was in the half of my high school graduating class that made the top half possible-----that my grandmother thought I was delusional to be pursuing higher education as a 40-year-old.

Said Grandma----“Mike---Why are you still going to college?”

“Because I want to get a doctorate,” I replied.

She shook her head. “Michael…If you can’t be healing people….you can’t be a doctor.”

My ticket was tenacity. I wasn’t going to lose. Had too much of that in high school.

Author David Blunt has a pretty concise way to sum up the topic. He said, “If you continue to do what’s right, what’s wrong and who’s wrong will eventually leave your life.”

Blunt, Mason and James are all saying the same thing. Each of us is faced with daily choices and situations that force us to examine our values. Eventually, with some thought, we know what is right and what is wrong. Those of us who are Christians believe that we will be rewarded here and in the hereafter for making right choices.

When my life wasn’t going so well…..the words of Blunt rang prophetic…..and my decisions dictated who and what happened from then on.

I am no great success story. I love my life and I still make plenty of wrong decisions.

But my batting average just keeps on improving…