You know the saying, too much of a good thing. This eludes to the idea that even good things in excess can be undesirable.
This idea came up on the drive to work with my sister today. We were talking about how character qualities we understand to be important can be taken to an extreme and misused.
One very real instance of this that I have to guard against is responsibility. Because, well, too much of a good thing…you get what I’m saying.
I consider responsibility to be a basic fundamental necessity of an individual. But due to the lack of such, for some reason I feel compelled to take up extra. Be it a simple or complex situation, I catch myself stepping into scenarios I’m not even part of.
Such as when a customer picks up their drink across the coffee shop, only to accidentally fumble and drop it. They exclaim and I rush over, apologize, and begin cleaning it up. Now I’m not saying we can’t try to help relieve another’s embarrassment and help clean up. But I find I have to watch my phraseology and keep from apologizing for a spill I didn’t have a part in.
Another time years ago, I had an employee that had a tendency to make messes, not purposely, just cataclysmically. At first, as with most any one else, I would be compassionate and say how sorry I was that this or that dumped, and I would help her clean it up. And things escalated from there. She would exclaim my name as if I was at fault when she would knock something over or spill it. And then she would step back expecting me to clean up.
I quickly realized a different approach was necessary. Instead of shouldering the responsibility as if each instance was my fault, I would respond to her calling my name with kind – but firm -encouragement to be more careful and direct her to clean up and keep going. I found when I redirected that responsibility for the situation right back to her, things improved dramatically! Far fewer calamities occurred as she had to take responsibility for her own actions.
And perhaps too much of a good thing is what got the church leaders at the time of Christ hung up in their rituals and sacrifices, rather than understanding the meaning and depth that these disciplines represented. Perhaps in an effort to be obedient, the church leaders were too literal and dogmatic – too obedient as it were.
It is interesting to me how we as humans look for a formula for life. We want to know what to do in each situation and how to best respond. What will help us proceed further and do better. Perhaps we get too caught up in thinking that our superior performance is what will save us, to a certain degree. If we wait long enough, have enough patience, work hard enough, etc.
But it is not by our merits that we have hope in a future with God, but rather through His mercy and kindness. And that presents an interesting point to me: where we as humans may go overboard with a good thing and take it to an undesirable extreme, God’s qualities are limitless and they never are too much! Think about it – He is merciful beyond what we deserve or can earn, and yet that for us is an incredible blessing! His provision is generous – above and beyond! The future He has for us is full of wonderful things, more than we can hope or imagine! And the list goes on!
In James, we are told to ask for wisdom and God will give it generously. I believe wisdom will help us rein in our efforts to better serve God. Wisdom will help us better govern our efforts to better reflect God’s wonderful qualities.
Too much of a good thing can become something undesirable. But when we remember to keep God at the center, we can be confident He will teach us how to better represent Him!
Until Next Time!
Hope.