Accidentally Faithful?
Danielle and I moved back to Pittsburgh in 2009 for a bi-vocational ministry opportunity. That’s just really fancy language for a part-time job. The church we spent our high school years in had hired me to come back and restart their student ministry. It was an exciting opportunity to build something from the ground up, but they definitely couldn’t pay me a full-time salary or really even close. So part-time it was. I think my first contract was for 15 hours a week. With that, I cobbled together 3 other part-time jobs to make a full-time income. One was at a high-end bicycle shop in the city. I had worked in a high-end shop in Chicago for a couple of years, so it was a good fit, and good money with sales commissions. At that job, my boss had a favorite line he’d say ad nauseam. It went something like this:
Him: “Hey, could you go and reorganize the stock room and make sure the inventory is correct?”
You: “Yep, I’ll try to get that done.”
Him: “Great, but how about you take the try out of that statement?”
You: “Yes, I’ll get that done.”
Him: “Ah, that’s better, thanks!”
It wasn’t offensive or aggressive, and he was a really good and generous boss. The reality is that he knew you were going to do whatever was being asked of you, and you knew what he was going to say if you used the “try” word. As tired as his statement felt to all of us, we all knew that there was real truth behind it. When you set out to do something, it never gets accomplished accidentally. Yes, accidents happen. But accidents, by their very nature, are not intentional. That is why they are accidental. To have something happen intentionally, it needs intention. And that is exactly what he was reminding us of every time he made that statement.
Here’s the thing, we all know this truth in our physical and everyday lives. We know it about our finances, our relationships, our careers, and the hobbies we pick up along the way. Nothing worthwhile will happen by accident; we have to take the “try” out and really do something. It is also true in our spiritual lives. The simple reality that we have seen over and over in Nehemiah is that faithfulness doesn’t happen by accident. Nehemiah and the people exposed their lives and hearts to the Word of God, which not only gave them clarity on the state of those things, it also gave prescriptions on how they were to live to honor God. And to walk in the ways of God will take intentional effort for them and for us. But, the book of Nehemiah also reminds us of another truth for you and me, we are prone to give up on the intentionality of following God. In other words, we tend to choose the path of least resistance. God doesn’t stop loving us when this happens. But we can’t be naive to think that it is just no big deal. Our obedience is important because it reflects our love. Our obedience is important because God’s ways are good and good for us. Our obedience is important because it is a crucial ingredient in living a faithful life. God loves us, obedient or not. God loves us, faithful or not. That’s not up for debate. We just can’t be fooled into thinking that faithfulness will just happen, or worse yet, it is accidental. It’s not.
So, let’s take the “try” out of our obedience.
And yes, I’m cringing at writing that phrase, but we all know it’s true.
There is plenty of grace for the ups and downs of faithfulness. There was grace for Nehemiah and his people, and there is grace for us. There is also a substantial joy in not letting our faithfulness happen by accident.
Let’s not miss that.