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Three Rules for an Active Lifestyle

Proactivity is a hard sell. It’s so much easier to be reactive or inactive. But Jesus constantly calls us to action--Jesus lived a life of action Himself. Our God is a proactive being-look at history. And the Holy Spirit is so active it’s hard to keep up.

John Wesley’s three life rules--do good, do no harm, and stay in love with God--are all rules dependent on verbs. You can’t do good or do no harm without doing something. And staying in love takes work. These rules call us to action--to a life of doing.

I saw a magnet today that said "being nice to other people is a really good idea." And it is. But how sad is it that we need a freaking fridge magnet to spell out for us what our Creator has been telling us for millennia? Wesley hit on a startlingly simple set of rules that say the same thing. And the foundation is our love for the God who has known us and loved us forever.

I have a hard time remembering that God loves me at times, so naturally it’s sometimes work to love Him. I know in my head that He loves me. I feel His presence and His direction. I can see His beauty in the faces of everyone around me, and in the creation I love so much. But a lot of the time it takes time, it takes me slowing down and looking around at that beauty, taking a breath and feeling that presence, to fall in love again.

The rule isn’t "be in love with God." It says to stay in love with Him. That implies action--whatever it takes. This summer I was deployed aboard the USS Peleliu, and it was not easy to feel God on that hulking piece of floating steel. I had to find a way to be alone for a few minutes a day, to be able to hear myself think, and to try to find God out there in the middle of the ocean. It was hard. I’d walk up near the bow of the ship every morning I could, and every morning until they got used to it, the guys I work with would ask me what the heck I was doing. Sometimes they gave me a pretty hard time. But I had to do it--sometimes those few minutes were the only thing that got me through the day.

And each day, up there alone with the wind and the water, I did find God. And it made everything else a little easier. And the thing is, it wasn’t even that much. It took me figuring out a way to have a few minutes by myself, but that‘s all it took--just a few minutes every day to know that God loves me, that He was with me out there, and that He deserves my love in return.

When you’re in God’s presence, the ability to follow the other rules seems to come more naturally. On the days when I didn’t get any alone time, I’d get snappy and rude, less likely to listen, and much less likely to go out of my way to do anything good for someone else. When I was able to find God, it was easier to live with other people. It was easier to follow the other two rules.

It’s easy to blow off a coworker who needs someone to talk to. It’s easy to walk by a guy on a street corner with a cardboard sign. It’s easy to buy stuff without understanding the impact on the lives of others. Through inaction, through neglect, we hurt the people around us. There are, of course, actions that are hurtful, too--but it’s easier not to stop hurtful behaviors than to decide to behave differently. The boy’s club I work with have a tendency toward meanness. Most of the time it’s just funny, but there are times when they (myself included) can get downright hurtful. And it’s easier to go along with it than to take any kind of a stand. I have a gift for empathy--but it’s easier to stay busy than to have a meaningful conversation with someone who needs a sympathetic ear.

Doing no harm, though, starts with doing something. If there’s a habit that is hurtful to someone else, I have to take the action to stop it. If I see that someone is harmed by the actions of someone else, it’s up to me to take the action to prevent it.

The same thing goes for doing good. It’s easier to understand that doing a good thing requires action than to grasp that not doing harm requires action. But that doesn’t make it easier to act.

It’s hard to take time out of a busy day to take out someone else’s trash, or find fair-trade coffee, or hang out with someone you don’t really like. It’s easier for me to donate cash to a good cause than to get out and take some action.

But that’s what I’m called to do. No one said it was easy.