Dr. Laura bugs me! She is mean to her audience; no, she is brutal to her audience. In a matter of seconds, maybe a few minutes, she psycho-analyzes those who call in to her radio show. The advice she gives them usually revolves around ethics and morality of a personal sort.

Family conflict is the number one problem for those who call in. Generally, they have truly made a mess of their lives and they call in a sincere effort to find help.

My favorite part of her show is the end. Whew… I don’t have to listen to her harsh treatment of the callers any longer. The best part is the very last thing she says each day, “Now, go do the right thing.”

In ethics and morality, some of us have a tendency to boil things down to a few essential elements. Dr. Laura thinks, as do many others, that our concern for living life morally will be taken care of when we “do the right thing.”

In fact, she implies that it doesn’t matter at all if the person desires to do the right thing. What is important is that the right thing be done. And even if we hate doing this right thing a million times during the course of our lives, we are OK because we have done the right thing. Action is what matters. Where your heart is has no relevance whatsoever in Dr. Laura’s way of thinking.

What I wonder is what comes first; doing the right thing, or having a heart that desires to do the right thing? It is, perhaps, a question that cannot be answered, but I appreciate Ezekiel 36:26 on this question. Part of the restoration God promises his people will focus on the heart: “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

The idea here focuses on Christ’s work of transformation on our hearts. Doing the right thing flows from having a heart in tune with God. Our first concern, then, should be allowing God to transform us into people with the heart of God; not simply trying to “do the right thing.” Of course, doing the right thing remains essential to the moral life, but I want God to work His miracle in my heart first.

Now, go submit your heart to God.