TWELVE REASONS

While going through my “save” files, I found this piece written years ago by James Hewett he titled Twelve Reasons Why a Local Clergyman Stopped Attending Athletic Events. Here they are: 1) Every time I went, they asked for money; 2) The people with whom I had to sit didn’t seem very friendly; 3) The seats were too hard and not comfortable; 4) The coach never came to call on me; 5) The referee made a decision with which I could not agree; 6) I was sitting with some hypocrites – they came only to see what others were wearing; 7) Some games went into overtime, and I was late getting home; 8) The band played some numbers that I had never heard before; 9) The games are scheduled when I want to do others things; 10) My parents took me to too many games when I was growing up; 11) Since I read a book on sports, I feel that I know more than the coaches anyhow; 12) I don’t want to take my children because I want them to choose for themselves what sport they like best.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to get Hewett’s point. There are a dozen reasons why people stop going to “athletic” events, whatever those events are. But they really are not reasons so much as they are excuses. And there are more. Any time we do not want to do something we probably should do, we find a reason why we cannot do it. We find an excuse that we hope reasonably excuses us.

That takes the heat off us for the moment. But sooner or later our excuses catch up to us and we have to face the issue head on: why do we not want to do what we know we really should do? Granted, both dealing with the issue at hand and resolving it will not be comfortable or even pleasing.

It’s like going on a diet we know we really need to go on. Once we stop making excuses why we can’t do so at this time and actually deal with it, going on a diet is never easy or pleasant no matter what all those ads tells us about how wonderful their menu is and how easy it is to follow. A diet is a diet and it takes work and it means we cannot eat anything and everything we want. That is not pleasant and it is not easy and is why we continue to make excuses.

The same is true for any part of our lives that needs reform. We all have a need. No exceptions because no one of us is perfect. We all have parts of our lives that need tending to and know that in tending to them it will take work, hard work, and maybe even a little sacrifice. We also know that we can come up with at least a twelve reasons why we cannot do so at this time. Reasons are a dime a dozen as they say.

The question remains, and we need to be honest, perhaps brutally honest: what part of our life is holding us back from being a better person, a healthier person, a more spiritual person and for which we are and have been making excuses for not attending to? The next question: are we going to continue to make excuses or will we finally do something?