DOING GOOD

John Wesley, good Anglican that he was till his death, who, along with his brother Charles were the founders of Methodism, was at his heart and in his ministry an itinerant evangelistic preacher at a time in England – and in the world – when that was just what was needed. The Wesleys preached and taught a way of life that was based on a regular practice of prayer and good works. There was a method to this way of life, a regularity and orderliness about it, from which came its name.

Their preaching did not fall on deaf ears because that was the message that needed to be preached, taught, learned and put into practice. They were highly successful. Their message is no less needed today than it was over two centuries ago, perhaps even more so. The people of the Wesley’s time led very simple lives, hard lives but very simple lives. Our lives today are much easier, given all the gadgets we have available to us to make life such. But our lives are also much more complicated also because of all these gadgets, many of which are simply toys.

Because we have so much to distract us, so many more options about what to do, how to use our time, what next, our lives have become somewhat, if not entirely, disordered. Sometimes it seems as if we do not know if we are coming or going. In those times we long for a simpler life even if we have no idea what that would mean or even knowing that it would mean giving up and even giving away some of these gadgets that consume so much of our lives.

For John Wesley the simple life boiled down to simply doing good. He said that we should do all the good we can, in all the ways we can, in all the places we can, at all the times we can, to all the people we can, as long as we can. Tall order? Yes. Exhausting? No doubt. Fulfilling? Absolutely. And it is all very simple, really, even if it sounds or seems all-consuming.

Opportunities for doing good are everywhere, especially right where we are. Be a good parent, a good child, a good spouse, a good worker, a good boss, a good whatever we are wherever we are. Do the best we can do at whatever we are doing. It is when we do less  than the best or, worse, when we deliberately do that which is not good, that we make problems for ourselves, for those around us, for the world.

While the opportunities are there, we often do not see them because, again, we have allowed ourselves to be consumed by consumerism. We fill our lives with so many distractions that we can’t see what needs to be seen, can’t hear what needs to be heard and then can’t do the good that needs to be done. It’s not that we do all this deliberately so much as it has come upon us gradually, one distraction at a time, one after another.

That’s where Wesley’s way comes in. We need to step back every once in a while – he would say every day – and take a good look at our lives, to slow down, sort out priorities, shed unwanted and unneeded distractions and allow ourselves time to look for the good in each moment. That would make life simpler, more orderly and more enjoyable.