Because I can
Welcome to the Verbal Motivation podcast. Where we talk about the things that motivate our lives, our religion and our relationships. My name is Nathan Vail.
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This is episode number 24 called Because I Can
I once worked with someone who liked excusing his behavior with the phrase, “because I can.” This was his response when, for example, I would ask him why he was leaving early for lunch. I was more than a little annoyed by that phrase until one day I realized that many of us, including me, live a “because I can” lifestyle, even if we don’t say it out loud, when we eat too much, watch too much tv or engage in activities that are not uplifting…just because we can.
I was thinking about this one day in my own life and I decided, just as a thought experiment, to go into an all you can eat buffet and eat one salad and leave. So I did. There were people all around me indulging themselves and I felt like they were all staring at me as I left. Either because they thought I was a fool or because I made them uncomfortable. It’s easy to overindulge when everyone is doing it.
In similar fashion, We have more opportunity today than at any other point in history. You could say that we are surrounded by an all you can eat buffet of choices, almost to the point of overstimulation.
Many years ago when I was a poor college student and newly married, I was driving with a gentleman who lived in a very expensive coastal town in California. We were traveling to an event in his Lexus and as we drove he was complaining about someone he knew that had inherited a lot of money and he said, “If I had that kind of money, I would do some good with it.” I was a surprised by that comment given his wealthy circumstances. I wondered as we drove, comparing himself to me, if he really wanted to do some good, could’t he do it now? I have since dubbed this phenomenon The Lexus Curve. It goes something like this.
The person driving a Lexus notices a guy driving a Ferrari and says if I had that wealth or opportunity I would do something with it.
But simultaneously a person in a Honda is looking at the Lexus and says the same thing.
You can work that scenario backwards all the way down until you have a person in a wheelchair saying that if they could just walk, like you or I, they would do something with it.
The point, of course, is that it doesn’t matter what our circumstances are, if we want to do good, we can do it. We don’t need the permission of some arbitrary external circumstance.
Elder Carlos A. Godoy recently offered the following promise, “...if we are willing to serve, the Lord will give us opportunities…He will put [people] in our path.”
He didn’t say anything about once we are rich or in a better circumstance. It was a flat promise that if we want to serve, the Lord will provide us with the opportunity.
But I think we already all knew that.
The principle of cause and effect is a fundamental concept in philosophy and science. It states that every event or phenomenon has a cause that precedes it and leads to its occurrence. In other words, every effect is the result of a preceding cause.
Similarly in life, our circumstances act like the cause but we can decide what effect it has on us. This is the great difference between human life and all other kinds. The cause and the effect can be separated, difficult as it may be.
In the Old Testament in 2 Kings. There is a man named Naaman who was a commander in the Syrian army. He is described as a mighty and successful warrior. Naaman also suffered from leprosy. A servant in his household, who was an Israelite that had been captured during a raid, suggested that Naaman seek healing from the prophet Elisha in Israel. Elisha agreed to meet with Naaman and the following transpired, quoting 2 Kings Chapter 5
9 So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
10 And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.
11 But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.
12 Are not…[the] rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.
I am trying to imagine as I read this a leper refusing to wash in the rivers in Israel because they are not good enough for him.
Yet, how similar is that to us, when our wealth or social success prevents us from serving others.
In Matthew 23 we are counseled saying, “11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.”
A good friend of mine related a story in sacrament meeting a few months ago about his high school baseball team that was exceptional one year. In the section finals Spencer was the second string pitcher and towards the end of the game he was called on to pitch because the first string pitcher had gotten the team into a bad place. Spencer stepped in and saved the game for his team.
As he was telling this story, an interesting thought crossed my mind. If he was talented enough to be a second string pitcher on a team that good, he could have been the first string pitcher on any number of other teams. What if he refused to play because he was too good to be the second string pitcher. If that was the case, his pride would have deprived him of a great experience, saving his team in the section finals. Very much like the way Joseph who was sold into Egypt continued in righteousness despite constant trials until one day he was in the right place at the right time and saved his family, his nation and all of Egypt.
We don’t always get to choose where we serve. Sometimes we may even feel we have the ability to serve in greater capacity than we do. Yet, if we refuse to serve where life and the Lord calls us, we may deprive ourselves and others of blessings and opportunities.
Martin Luther King, Jr said it best, “Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.”
“Because I can” should be a call to action for each of us. To give a little more and take a little less; just because we can.
My Name is Nathan Vail and this is the Verbal Motivation Podcast.