Enough

A bit of venting:

Through my own experiences with God and with life, I have learned an important principle:
The greatest happiness and benefit is gained by doing the right thing before the Lord forces me to do it. It doesn't matter how complicated the issue is. It doesn't matter how much I dread the additional consequences of doing the right thing.
What matters is that the moment I admit that I should do something, the very best course of action is to choose to do it before I no longer have a choice. There is no better way to change and improve than to choose it of my own free will.

It is difficult for a prison inmate to fully repent of his sins, because he does not have the opportunity to choose not to commit them . . . he is forced to abstain from crime. All the prayer in the world will not change the fact that when he is released he will likely have to struggle with the temptation to return to his criminal ways. Change in the soul is accomplished by the full and complete act of turning our will to righteous ends, and taking the action we recognize as God's will.

It is a serious mistake to wait to do what we should until we have to, because we are missing out on much of the benefit that action gives us. Sometimes it is utterly impossible to gain the real benefit of doing what we should do if we wait until it becomes necessary first . . . this is especially true when the action needed is an emotional or spiritual change. Waiting until circumstances force us to act is like refusing to actually change, because we don't internalize it: as soon as the change is no longer necessary, we will cast it aside.

It's frustrating to me how many people don't realize this simple truth. If we wait to be humble until the Lord compels us to be, we will NEVER be like him, we will NEVER be free, we will NEVER overcome the challenges he presents us.

I'm tired of telling people this. I'm tired of seeing people wreck themselves and worry about all the crap they have to go through while refusing to do the things they SHOULD do. If you wait until He MAKES you do it, of COURSE it's going to be harder!

It's time to do what we should, while God is giving us time before he compels us. It's time to understand that what matters first is what is right. It is time to leave all the unnecessary baggage and pessimism behind and strip down the problem to see what the real issues are. It's time to come to term with our sunk costs.

--Jacob