Never-ending (Friday Devotional)

“Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.”

- 2 Thessalonians 3:13

It never fails. My son and I will be walking toward the car, and suddenly he’ll tug on my hand and point to something 20 feet away. When I look, I’ll inevitably see a paper cup or a plastic bag lying on the ground. “Daddy!” he’ll exclaim. “That’s trash! It needs to go in the trash can!”

Sometimes we’ll walk over and discard the litter, but I admit that other times I hustle him toward the car so we can get where we’re going. After all, I reason, there’s trash everywhere—what are we supposed to do, stop every time we see some litter on the ground?

This is just one small example of something every adult experiences: the conscious decision not to help. Whether it comes when you see an elderly woman struggling to load her groceries into her car, when you see a panhandler at the intersection, or when a friend asks you to babysit on your first free Saturday in months, everyone’s experienced that moment when you realize you could do something, weigh the pros and cons, and opt to mind your own business.

These moments betray a world-weariness within us, a belief that we can’t really make a difference or even that we shouldn’t have to. But Scripture consistently teaches that you are your brothers’ keeper, that loving your neighbor means serving them even and especially when it’s inconvenient, that compassion is not something you schedule or compartmentalize. Doing what is right can be exhausting work, but we must not grow so weary that we stop.

With his child-like faith, my son has something to teach me, and perhaps you: when you have the ability to help, you have the responsibility to help. The work never ends, true…but neither does the grace of God.