Excuses

One of the obvious evidences of man’s ingenuity is the excuses he contrives to make. The variety and plausibility of our explanations to ourselves and others for our failures to perform sometimes seem to exceed the fabrications of fiction.

We explain why we didn’t continue a certain course, why we didn’t finish school, why we didn’t pay a debt, why we don’t break a bad habit, why we dropped the ball, why we were late, why we weren’t there, why we didn’t accept an assignment, why we failed in marriage, why we didn’t keep our word, why we didn’t keep a commandment, why we departed from a principle, why we didn’t deliver on the promised date. We can explain them all ⎯ these, and ten thousand other things ⎯ sometimes sincerely, sometimes superficially.

Admittedly excuses are often valid and sincere and acceptable. Courts of law recognize that there can be valid reasons for failure to perform. There are acts of God, so-called, and of men, and circumstances and situations which make it physically, practically, literally impossible to do some things we should have done or said we would do. There are laws that give relief to the person who has done his best and who finds it impossible to go beyond his best, and we should have no undue fear of facing our ultimate just Judge if we have lived up to the best of our understanding and opportunities in the circumstance in which we found ourselves.

But not so with him who confronts his friends or fellow men or his eternal Father with specious, shoddy, superficial excuses for his failures. And this we must remember: No matter how good an excuse may be, no reason for failure or defection is ever so satisfying to ourselves or to anyone else as is actually doing what we should do, or delivering on the date that something is due. Excuses are at best a second-choice substitute.

It is a surpassing quality in life to follow through, to keep commitments, to keep the commandments, and no matter how ingenious our excuses are, they don’t cancel commitments, or justify our failures, unless they are founded on real, valid reasons ⎯ and not merely on our comfort or convenience.