John Witte, our speaker this past Monday, subtitled his talk on diligence "long-haul lovin.'" He opened the discussion with a video polling various members of the Calvin community on what diligence means, and then asked us to identify the themes:
Responsibility.
Hard work.
Long term commitment.
Continuing, even when you don't want to.
An act of love.
A response to love.
We are all familiar with the seven deadly sins: pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed and sloth. But historically these are countered by the seven contrary virtues: humility, kindness, abstinence, chastity, patience, liberality and diligence. Sloth, the antithesis of diligence, is defined as a resistance to any effort to change as demanded by God's love. Diligence, then, is a response to God's love for us, a "long haul offering to God."
The Calvin College core curriculum identifies several virtues that they hope to promote. Diligence is, appropriately, one of them; the college hopes to teach students "to forego lesser goods in the present for the sake of greater goods in the future," and notes that "diligence is required wherever excellence is sought"- the acquired habit of expending considerable energy in the steady pursuit of a goal." The fine things in life are hard, they say.
Yet simply committing to a goal is not virtuous if the goal is ignoble. Take Bernie Madoff, for example, John pointed out. We see proper diligence in the Bible as giving oneself fully to the work of the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:58) and working at whatever one does with all one's heart, as working for the Lord (Colossians 3:22). As leaders, the standard of diligence is spelled out: "it [one's gift] is leadership, let him govern diligently" (Romans 12:8).
Discipleship is a long journey, and requires diligence as we follow through on the commitment we have made in response to God's love.
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