- What is Right?
- What pleases the Lord?
I asked myself this morning: what is the right thing to do?
For one project, what's right is easy: fulfill my end of the commitment, tie things off and hope for the best. Easy. For the other that's not so clear: there is no contract, no payment or compensation, and a history of considerable delays that have brought me to a radically different work situation than when I first agreed to the project. In this case, it seems right to simply end the ambiguity by donating my current code and suggesting the client take some time to regroup.
Well, hang on a second, let's take this a step further. Ephesians 5:8-10 tells me to live as a child of the light and "find out what pleases the Lord." So what would please the Lord here?
I am forced to re-evaluate the first project. Simply fulfilling my end of the contract here is not quite enough. I should still be giving my best effort and most graceful management of the project—that means no cut-and-run allowed. Accelerate things a bit, sure. Focus more tightly on the agreed-upon scope, and actively try to wrap things up, but don't just deliver and disappear. Okay, be graceful, duly noted.
My latter project becomes more clear as well: just finish it. Yes, it is impacting my other commitments, and I may have a legitimate out, but commit the project to the Lord and trust in him to take care of the details. At the very least give them something usable before you donate the code and suggest re-negotiation on extra functionality.
So I learn, again, that sometimes asking what is "right" or "justifiable" is not always what is "best." It is an excellent place to start—a good prop, if you will, to pull ourselves to our feet. But in order to truly walk we ought to be focusing our decisions not inward, not outward, but upward.
Proverbs 14:12, 16:25 both tell us, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death." Too often when I look for what is right I am caught looking for my rights. Perhaps a useful prop, a crutch, a good place to start. But ultimately what is right is simply a subset of love, and is certainly not its substitute in and of itself.
"For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord." Ephesians 5:8-10
5 comments:
Radical, Nick! Thanks for posting this. Its always good to be reminded of where our focus should be.
Keep up the good work, my friend!
"But ultimately what is right is simply a subset of love... "
Well said, Nick. It's encouraging to read somebody's act of wrestling with pragmatic outworkings of spiritual things. I feel that question, "What pleases the Lord?" is such a good thing to ask on all levels. From broader systemic things down to individual, mundane choices. Thank you, Nick, for taking the time to reflect and write about your experince doing this recently. It's helpful to say the least :-)
Thanks J-May. I'm happy to share, and it's always good to know when my thoughts are at marginally more useful than merely cathartic.
I was happy to discover your blog and excited about your use of the term "feed reader" the other day. I didn't know you were such a nerd. Anyway, now you're in mine as well ;)
Oh, also, thanks for the link. Might want to point it at http://nick.zadrozny.com if you like drinking from firehoses.
And, thanks to you too, Cynthia. Both of you keep up your excellent writing so we can use the internet to collectively sharpen each other :)
Yeah man, taking advantage of RSS is the only way to survive out there on a lone site that I've found, any way.
"...so we can use the internet to collectively sharpen each other :)"
Ahhhahaha, that, my e-friend, is awesome. So funny and yet so true :-|
That's my serious face, so you know I e-mean it.
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