A friend was babysitting a toddler whom she told to help pick up the puzzle pieces he had scattered on her floor. The kid replied, “I’m sorry; I can’t. I have allergies.”
Allergies? Yeah, apparently he’s allergic to work! I think I’ve got that allergy, too. In fact, maybe we all develop an allergic reaction to unpleasant tasks. It is normal to want to avoid what we don’t feel like doing.
But before you play your allergy card, consider this: Haven’t the greatest accomplishments in history resulted from somebody doing what he didn’t feel like doing?
Who among the signers of the Declaration of Independence felt like being declared a traitor and risking his life? Surely the valiant soldiers at Valley Forge didn’t feel like suffering through a bitter winter away from home. A scientist like Galileo didn’t feel like being ostracized, but he fought for what was true until the world came to see it.
The greatest example, however, is Jesus dying on the cross. We know from his prayer in the garden that he did not personally want to endure humiliation and execution. And he had the power to avoid it if he chose to do so. Yet, he did what he did not feel like doing because it was right. It was necessary. It was the will of his Father.
To kneel at the foot of the cross is to see blood splattered on the ground, reminding us that following Jesus is very different from following our feelings. It is very different from doing what we feel like. Following Jesus means doing what is right, what is the will of our Father, regardless of personal cost and sacrifice.
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: who . . . became obedient to death — even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:5,8).
Greatness is within your grasp, but it will not be found down the self-centered path of comfort and ease. It is found following footsteps leading to a cross.
Someone said, “When the going seems easy, you may be going downhill.” Margaret Thatcher, former British Prime Minister, said it this way: “Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it’s when you’ve had everything to do, and you’ve done it.”
Doing the right thing is nothing to sneeze at.

Keith Wishum is minister, Williams Road Church, Americus.