1.  How do we do that? Well, it’s a two step process:

First, we need to unlearn what we know and do. All the assumptions, behaviors, attitudes and things we have taken for granted that have shaped us need to be undone – and that takes time. We need to say “no” to what the world has taught us over time to think about relationships, success and failure, right and wrong, religion, wealth and love. “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures, We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another..” Whether we realize it or not, we have been shaped by the world into a mold and it takes time to reset that mindset and way of behaving.

Second, we need to move from saying “no” to saying “yes” to some important things in this new life. For if we stay in the first stage we will end up with very narrow lives defined by what we do not do. This is the trap of legalism. It is first stage living. So, we must learn to love doing good – not just refraining from doing evil. We must experience the thrill of living right and becoming eager to do good. It is not just duty or discipline but a genuine enjoyment no longer built around rules and regulations. St. Augustine said it so well: “Love God and do what you will.”

My father had a friend named Herb True. He was a well known professor at Notre Dame and an alcoholic. When he had stopped drinking he told my father that not drinking was like stage one but it was not until he realized how much he loved being sober that he began to really live.

2.  Paul goes on to say that we live these lives in this present age while we wait. I know that you can take “this present age” to mean this present era between the return of Christ to his Father after the resurrection and his coming again. However, I also think it makes sense to think of Paul’s meaning we live these lives of doing good in every stage of history here on earth. For each generation faces new challenges for us. There has never been an easy time to be a Christian and to do good. Annie Dillard says, “There never was a more holy age than ours, and never less.” It’s true and it does no good to try to return to a past time of history or dream about an easier time in the future. The Church will always have new and unique opportunities for living godly lives. Each age calls for a new response. Otherwise, we are not waiting in anticipation but we are frozen in time.

But, we are fearful and people tell us that our simple doing good no longer works or the Church is obsolete. We are daunted and intimidated by the scope of the evil we face. However, another way of saying “godliness” is God-fearing and what the Danish writer Soren Kierkegaard said is correct. “The remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, but if you do not fear God, you fear everything else.” We live, as all Christians have throughout the ages, in a time when everyone is fearful and living in dread. People seem to have no fear of God and so they are fearful of everything else in their lives. We have the antidote to that, don’t we? We need not be afraid because we, appropriately, fear God.

3.  We are ready to do whatever good the times require but in humility. Doing good is not to make us famous or to attract attention. It will because it will seem so counter to the world. That was one of the reasons for the growth of the early Church. During the plagues in Rome while the Roman citizens rushed out the Christians rushed in to care for people. People noticed. Even Paul says that our behavior will result in a good report and “make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.”

I live in a world where it has become standard to publicize every good thing you do. Visibility increases fund-raising. Trumpeting good work on social media is encouraged. Writers and musicians have to self-promote before publishers will even consider them. Humility is discouraged and self-aggrandizement is encouraged. While humility is not self-degradation, it is not self-serving. It was C.S. Lewis who said, “Humility is not thinking less of oneself but thinking of oneself less.” The world of doing good today is caught up in making sure everyone knows how much good you are doing. I know. I live there.

An artist friend on Facebook, Bruce Herman, has been the source of a discussion among artists on how they deal with this tension. They know they have to be visible in order to make a living but they struggle with how much is being visible and how much is pride. How much is letting people know about their work and how much is simply hawking their wears. In reading through the thread I thought about something Henri Nouwen said about this:

“There is much emphasis on notoriety and fame in our society. Our newspapers and television keep giving us the message: What counts is to be known, praised, and admired, whether you are a writer, an actor, a musician, or a politician. Still, real greatness is often hidden, humble, simple, and unobtrusive. It is not easy to trust ourselves and our actions without public affirmation. We must have strong self-confidence combined with deep humility. Some of the greatest works of art and the most important works of peace were created by people who had no need for the limelight. They knew that what they were doing was their call, and they did it with great patience, perseverance, and love.”

4.  And our call is to become heirs having the hope of eternal life. If you dig into the root of the word “inheritance” you will discover that it means “an assignment” or “a responsibility.” That’s not typically the way we think of being an heir or receiving an inheritance. It’s about money and possessions but in reality an heir is someone who has accepted an assignment. We are in training to become worthy heirs. How do you train people to become heirs? I’m afraid we don’t do a very good job of it. I read an article on the lives of 17 young royals who will one day inherit the leadership of their countries and it was discouraging because the article focused on their lifestyle – travel, fashion, leisure, pleasure, wealth – and not on their gradual assumption of responsibility. I wrote a blog a few years ago about the difference between the way we looked at inherited wealth when we worked and lived on farms and now.

“Today wealth is almost synonymous with money and other financial assets. One hundred years ago it would have typically been the family farm. Leaving that wealth to the children was the plan and there was little thought about “ruining” them in leaving wealth to them. What was different? Parents started the children out early in their lives with a sense of responsibility. They had chores when they were young. They had animals to care for – not just pets. They had associations with others living on farms through FFA and 4-H clubs. As they grew up they had genuine ownership of the wealth. They had responsibility for it. They knew everything about it their whole lives and they were prepared to inherit it.

Not so today. We isolate children from the responsibilities and “chores” of wealth. There are no official clubs and associations for them to learn about wealth. They associate through private schools summer camps and family vacations with others from wealthy families but they don’t learn about the “work” as they would have on a farm. Wealth is not tangible to them. It is a lifestyle. They don’t see it or feed it or plow it or contribute their labor to it. They are separated from it for the most part. They are the beneficiaries of it but not connected to it and so inheriting it becomes a completely different issue. Many of our children have no way of knowing how to care for the wealth they inherit and so we worry about their being ruined by it. We didn’t worry about being ruined by the family farm because we were brought up and trained all our lives to inherit it.”

5.  But avoid useless things. Elsewhere, Paul says knowledge puffs up and divides us but doing good in humility is productive. Oswald Chambers puts it in the right perspective. “The golden rule for understanding spiritually is not intellect, but obedience. If a man wants scientific knowledge, intellectual curiosity is his guide; but if he wants insight into what Jesus Christ teaches, he can only get it by obedience.” It is obedience that causes growth – not just knowledge. It is obedience that leads to maturity.

6.  Finally, it ends with grace – not a burden but permission to love life while we wait in hope. Again, I like what Annie Dillard says about good lives. “There is no shortage of good days. It is good lives that are hard to come by. A life of good days lived in the senses is not enough. The life of sensation is the life of greed; it requires more and more. The life of the spirit requires less and less; time is ample and its passage sweet.” I had to ask myself this week, “Am I living the good life or am I living a good life?” It’s a fine distinction, isn’t it? Am I living a life filled with good things made possible by good investments, education, fulfilling work and accomplishment or am I living “a good life” as someone eager to do good and guided by the life of the Spirit?” Do I need more and more to guarantee “the good life” or less and less because I am the heir of a good life?

Mother Teresa said wisely, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” What small good thing can you do this week? Not out of obligation but out of eagerness and devotion. It may be invisible and unnoticed. It may be a note, a generous tip, a kind word or compliment. Whatever it is, it will make the teaching of God our Savior more attractive.