You can’t be serious!

Three of your friends are blindfolded. You’re brought in, but they don’t know you’re there, they only know someone has come in, and they have to identify who you are by a catch phrase they will be told. What’s the one catch phrase they could hear that would make them instantly think of you?

There’s a lot of trendy catch phrases out there to choose from …

• “Back in the day …”
• “What up?”
• “That’s how I roll …”
• “Wooord …”
  
• “Whatever …”
• “My bad!”
• “Hook a brutha up!”
• “Duuuuude …”
• “I know, right?”
• “Sweeeet …”
• “That’s sick!”
• “Just sayin’ …”
• “It is what it is …”
  

I haven’t had a catch phrase common to myself, but lately there is one that seems to enter my thoughts often. It’s this: “Seriously?!”

It must be that I’ve heard the phrase so often I’ve started to apply it in my thinking. And it seems to be a good one! When you consider some of the things people do, sometimes you just want to pause and say or think, “Seriously?!”

That catch phrase comes to mind when I read a somewhat startling sentence the Apostle Paul writes in Galatians 6:9:

“So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”

Paul has to encourage these Christians to not get tired of “doing what is good.”

Seriously?! I mean, seriously?!

Just how much “doing good” would it take to make you tired of “doing good”?

Seriously?!

Do you “do good” so much that you really tire of it? Do you know anyone who goes about doing good — in any way — that they’re worn out from it?

How much love would you have to give to weary from it? How much kindness or gentleness would you have to express to others that would make you tired of continuing? How much encouragement, how much support, how much service would you have to give as part of your doing good that would simply wear you out?

Have you ever loved someone so much you actually thought, “I better back off or I’ll be completely wiped out”?

Have you ever given so much you thought, “I must stop here, or I’ll put my own personal finances in jeopardy”? Ever?

Have you ever helped someone so much you had to move on to helping others because you met their entire need?

Actually doing good to the point of growing tired of it isn’t really our problem. What is the problem is not caring enough about doing good that we weary of it so quickly we do very little of it!

In our minds, doing good should swiftly (more like immediately) be followed by reward for doing good. When the reward doesn’t follow immediately behind the “doing good,” we grow tired of it and revert back to what we do best: focusing on ourselves.

Paul tries to help us understand that in God’s economy, reward will come more greatly than we can imagine, but usually not immediately after our “doing good.” It could be much later, and some of the reward will not come in this lifetime. But reward should not affect our persistence in doing good. Paul says, “At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”

Many give up doing good, but not from wearing themselves out from it. More are like a friend of mine who considers himself to be a church leader. He’s intelligent, gifted, talented, financially blessed. He could, through Christ, do a lot of good. Instead, he first tries to “qualify” people for any good he would do for them:

• Is their need due to sin?
• Is their need due to poor judgment on their part?
• Or have they done all they can, and “really” need someone to do some good in their lives?
• If they’re “qualified” for needing someone to do some good in their lives, how much can others contribute? (meaning how little can he do!).
  

That’s far from the example of “doing good” we see from Jesus. Jesus did good things for people struggling because of their sin, for people struggling because of their poor judgment, and for people who were plagued with problems from no wrongdoing of their own but just so the glory of God could be shown through them. In other words, Jesus didn’t qualify people for loving them, being kind to them, being gentle with them, being a joy to them, healing them, feeding them, saving them. They were qualified if they had a need … and we all have need!

Jesus did so much good He died from it! Seriously!

And when He became weary of it, He did it anyway:

“41 He walked away, about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 ‘Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine’,” Luke 22:41-42.

The next time you think you’re tired of doing good, ask yourself this: “Seriously?”

Have you really done that much good?

Seriously?

Scotty