The Right Thing

Reuters report surrounding a visit by Condoleezza Rice at Google, Inc. included the following:

Speaking at a news conference ahead of an international conference on Iraq, Rice said she had not read the book by former White House press secretary Scott McClellan, but added that removing Saddam was “the right thing to do.”

Regardless what any of us believe about that particular matter, doing “the right thing” has lost out to doing “the popular thing.” Whether it is in politics, academia, pop culture, or the Church of Jesus Christ, we’re into popularity polls to give us the direction in which to move.

I submit that is fundamentally wrong. Often the “right” thing is not the most popular. Sometimes the “right” thing is so loosely regarded that no one who plans to succeed would consider it a viable option. I can’t find in Scripture where Jesus ever surveyed the people, or even His closest followers, to determine what was next. He knew what was “right” and did that – without exception, without compromise. Would to God we were like that in every area of life.