Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.
- James 4:17
For days this week I’ve been dodging the responsibility of unloading the dishwasher. It started Tuesday morning when, in a rush, I dropped my coffee cup in the sink, knowing that if I opened up the dishwasher, I’d find it full of clean dishes needing to be put away. Wednesday I did the same thing at lunchtime. By yesterday, there was a small collection of cups, plates, and silverware in the sink, all the result of my unwillingness to open the dishwasher and confront the job that needed to be done. All week long, my attitude was as irrational as it was lazy: if I never opened the dishwasher, I’d never have to do the job.
That attitude is an easy one to have in life, from trivial things like household chores to larger issues of right and wrong—we think if we can simply ignore things, we have no responsibility to deal with them. If we remain passive when activity is needed, we may not be heroes, but we’re not guilty either. Ignorance, as the cliché goes, is bliss.
But the Lord calls us to a higher standard than ‘hear no evil, see no evil.’ Our responsibility as people of God is to take the opportunities given to us to show people His love, to serve with glad and gracious hearts. When confronted with the chance to do right, we have not just the option but the obligation to do so.
The Lord has called us to be his ambassadors in this world, showing and telling our neighbors who God is with everything we do. May we embrace that responsibility instead of dodging it.
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