The Rest Doesn’t Matter

His dictum in life and in leadership was simple and straightforward: “Do the right thing. The rest doesn’t matter.” No better expression or embodiment of Stoicism is found in his line (and his living of that line) than: “Waste no more time talking about what a good man is like. Be one.”

Lives of the Stoics, Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman*

How hard is it to do the right thing?

As I write this, the United States is in the midst of an extensive investigation into the events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. For those who aren’t aware, it was a dark day in American democracy. (Ironically, as I wrote “democracy” in that last sentence, I originally mistyped and wrote “democrazy”… which seems appropriate on some level.)

For weeks at this point, the presidential race had been called in favor of Joe Biden, who defeated President Donald Trump by several million votes. However, there were many on the Trump side who kept claiming (without merit or evidence) that the election was rigged. This constant barrage of blatantly false information (also, a good slogan for the Trump presidency as a whole) came to a head on the day that Congress was to officially declare Biden the winner.

There were all kinds of schemes in place to try to avoid that outcome. Many of them being aided by the very same people who were voted into office on those same ballots. It was an attempted coup. There’s no doubt about it.

As more is coming out with the January 6th hearing from the Select Committee, which includes testimony from the very people who were present when it happened and who were watching it all unfold, one thing is very clear. There were people – even people within our own government – who were trying very hard to NOT do the right thing.

Thankfully, Vice President Mike Pence didn’t fall for the schemes. You could argue that he never should have been in that position in the first place, but the bottom line was that he acknowledged the loss and dealt with it in an honorable way. What did he get for it? A mob standing outside the building (and then breaking into it), gallows erected, and people chanting “Hang Mike Pence.”

How hard is it to do the right thing?

We live in a nation and world that is facing deep division every where you look. People are picking fights with one another. Politicians are avoiding doing the right thing in order to score political points with their base in hopes of getting re-elected.

Just look at the current political conversation about guns. It should be a no-brainer, but gun reform is somehow translated into “Democrats want to take your guns!” Responsible gun owners have nothing to fear from gun reform laws.

On the day that it was released that nearly 400 police officers stood outside a school in Uvalde, Texas while a gunman hunted and killed children inside, there was another public shooting. This one was in a mall that I grew up going to. It’s a place I have been countless times. I used to work in the Sears that is no longer there, but was located right next to the food court where the shooting occurred. One of the victims was somebody that graduated from my high school. (He graduated several years after me, so, I didn’t know him.)

And yet, there will be people who continue to think that we don’t need to address our current gun laws. There are people who think that the Second Amendment is somehow more important than the right of another person to live, and all these deaths are mere sacrifices to the gun-toting God of Christian nationalism.

How hard is it to do the right thing?

Last Sunday, I preached from Philippians 2. In the verses known as the Christ Hymn (Philippians 2:6-11), it says,

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, [7] but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, [8] he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5-8, NRSV)

Even though Jesus was in the form of God, the eternal, timeless, Son of God, he did not see this position/power/authority as something to be “exploited”. That is to say that Jesus did not do anything for his own gain. He demonstrated a humble heart.

How hard is it to do the right thing?

Marcus Aurelius was the emperor of Rome. He is depicted at the beginning of the movie Gladiator. He was a philosopher. He was somebody who worked hard to better himself. He didn’t have to do it. He was emperor. Whatever he wanted was the way that it was going to be. He had absolute power and authority in the Roman world. But he didn’t let it go to his head.

He tried his best to be a good man and a just emperor. Did he always succeed? No. None of us do. However, if you were to read his Meditations, you would see the struggle he went through to hold himself accountable.

How hard is it to do the right thing?

It’s not. Just do it. Nothing else matters.

*Amazon affiliate link. This book is a gold mine of timeless wisdom from Stoic philosophers. I actually read this to my son at bedtime a while back, and he didn’t even fuss about it!