Doing the Right Thing, Even When It Hurts

And if you say, “What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?” I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. Leviticus 25:20-21

In the disaster of my addiction, when I lost my job and was losing my family, I began to learn dependence on God. Only when I had nothing left, did I begin to truly rely on him. I simply had to believe that the only way my life would get better was to follow God’s will. That was a profound step forward in my spiritual journey, but it probably hasn’t been my greatest act of faith. Honestly, I really didn’t have a lot of options back then. God was all I had. Somewhat paradoxically, it’s been more challenging to follow God once life returned to normal. In my success now, I’ve been tempted by pride and self-sufficiency, which are the natural enemies of my faith. When I’m doing fine on my own, I just don’t see my need for God.

So, recovery has meant following God, stepping out of comfort, and choosing discomfort, when I believe that’s what God wants from me. It’s meant reaching out to someone who is struggling, even when I’m busy and just want some time to myself. It’s meant writing a public blog, even when I wanted to protect my privacy and dignity. It’s meant taking a risk on a new job working with inmates. Obedience though, has always led to more blessing that I thought possible. I expected obedience to mean painful sacrifice and instead God has blessed me.

Today’s passage illustrates this blessing that only comes through practicing faith. In it, the Israelites were commanded by God to set aside every seventh year to not plant crops. For that entire year, they were to let their fields sit idle. If they committed to this, God promised a bountiful harvest in the sixth year that would carry them through the seventh. But they had to commit, or they wouldn’t see the blessing. I’d bet some of them reserved the right to plant if God didn’t deliver on the sixth year’s harvest. For those, I’d also bet that God didn’t provide the blessing. To get the blessing, they had to commit to obedience, even when it didn’t make much sense.

My wife and I have recently found ourselves this position – Doing something that we believe to be right, even though it looks like it will cost us dearly. I’m not ready to write about it in detail yet. I will. For now though, I’d appreciate your prayer as we must believe that God will bless the right thing, even when it hurts.