Doing, Non-Doing, Over-Doing

 Life is all about doing, non-doing, and over-doing. 

Doing

Growing up, you begin learning about things and people around you. Doing is your learning, which gives you everything, including your understanding that God is in control of everything, and this is the beginning of your faith, which gives you love and the true meaning of life. 

The opposite of doing is sloth.

Sloth

Sloth is laziness, which is a mental struggle that many may experience as they grow up. Sloth can be habit-forming in not doing daily things they're supposed to do, such as learning, finding a job, and helping the family.

Sloth is due to many factors: anxiety, fear, and worry about the consequences of the doing; not having enough sleep; not knowing how to manage time; and living a meaningless life without a purpose.

Living by faith, you free yourself from the bondage of sloth through your recognition and compliance to the need of your doing not just for yourself but also for helping others, according to God's plan for you and for others.

Non-Doing

In life, there're many things that're irrelevant, unnecessary, and even damaging. So, non-doing is avoiding them. 

An Illustration

There was an ancient Chinese story about a drawing competition, in which candidates were asked to draw a snake in detail. One of the candidates finished his drawing much sooner than the rest of the candidates. Thinking that "extra effort" would give him "extra credit", that candidate began adding beautiful legs with fine details to his snake. 

As a result of his "extra effort", instead of his "non-doing", the candidate, with beautiful legs on his snake, was disqualified and lost the drawing competition.

Living by faith, you never seek perfection in anything, because only God is perfect, and all humans are imperfect.

Over-Doing

Control is power, and power is demand and domination--the essentials of an "inflated" ego. With expectations of the anticipated outcome, many will turn to over-doing.

An Illustration

Lance Armstrong had won seven consecutive Tour de France titles and the Olympic bronze medal in cycling. Infatuated with his cravings for more success in cycling, he began his own "over-doing" by taking performance-enhancing drugs in his subsequent races. His "over-doing" brought about his own downfall, and he was stripped of all his previous titles in cycling.

Living by faith, you just do the best you can do with no expectation, and let God do the rest. There's no winning or losing because in God's realm of spontaneity what goes up must also come down, just as life is forever followed by death.

Stephen Lau


































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