expectations

I remember some of the best advice for life I ever got. It came from my recruiter, who summarized the way to get by and even get ahead in the military this way: “Just be where you’re supposed to be, doing what you’re supposed to be doing.”

Seems simple, but I’ve repeated those words to myself often. It’s amazing how many times the I’ve gotten into trouble and then realized I’d violated one or both halves of what my recruiter told me.

David proves my point. 2 Samuel 11 starts this way: “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.”

David remained in Israel, and because he wasn’t where he was supposed to be, doing what he was supposed to be doing, he was instead in a position to notice Bathsheba and to do something about it. That led, of course, to him plotting murder, and eventually to the death of the son he and Bathsheba would have.

Fact is, the expectations God and society have of us tell us what good citizenship and good discipleship look like. We may think of those expectations as restrictive and rebel against them – we tend to admire rule-breakers and those who walk that fine line – but the fact is, if we’re where we’re supposed to be, doing what we should be doing, life usually goes pretty well.

I think God makes it pretty easy to know what the right thing is. Satan gives us all kinds of reasons not to want to do it. That conflict can define my life, if I let it. Or I can choose to follow my recruiter’s advice, which strangely enough seems to coincide with God’s will. I haven’t gotten in trouble doing that yet.