Friday, January 24, 2014

Don't stay out of trouble!

"Hey, at least I didn't do what HE did" or "Well, I haven't hurt anyone" or "It's not like I've joined another religion". Our minds procure a colourful range of explanations for why it's good enough to just do nothing wrong. When you live in a country with daily headlines about high-level corruption and violent crime, it becomes tempting to believe that you are good person simply because you haven't done much wrong.
I've often heard people use the argument- usually while trying to convince someone to become more religious- that a non-religious person is really quite religious, just without knowing it. "Have you served an idol today? Murdered anyone? Practiced witchcraft?" they'll say, following quickly with, "Nu, see how many mitzvos you already do!"
Life isn't really about how much depravation you dodge. We're meant to be proactive, to add light to the world, not only to avoid darkness.
Living a life of trouble-avoidance is a safe bet, but doesn't earn us much. G-d says that if we don't serve idols, He will bless us with goodness. You know how it is, sometimes blessings don't work, sometimes we don'teven see them when they hit us.
Dynamic doing good requires more focus and effort, but it reaps greater rewards. When talking about the active performance of mitzvos, G-dpromises us protection, health and succees. That's no longer just a blessing, that's an assurance from the one Being who you can rely upon to keep a promise.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We all do something wrong at times. ... But I feel that doing "nothing" is worse