DO YOUR DUTY, RELEASE THE OUTCOME

18 November 2025

Noah built an ark for 120 years while everyone around him mocked what he was doing. No one joined him. No one believed his warnings. He simply obeyed what God had commanded, day after day, year after year. The flood eventually vindicated him, but his duty had been fulfilled long before the outcome arrived. He could not control whether people listened. He could only control whether he obeyed.

We continue to grapple with this very distinction today. We hesitate to act without guaranteed success, measure everything by visible results, and exhaust ourselves trying to control outcomes that ultimately rest in God's hands. Christian teaching offers a different framework: the duty is ours, the outcome is God's. This is not an invitation to passivity; rather, it is a liberation to act rightly, regardless of whether our efforts produce the results we hope to see.

The Paralysis of Obsession with Outcomes

We know this paralysis intimately: the project we will not start because we cannot guarantee its success; the truth we will not speak because people might not listen; the training we abandon because visible transformation does not arrive as quickly as we had hoped; the child we cannot reach despite our best efforts at faithful parenting.

Modern culture has taught us to obsess over outcomes in ways that would have seemed strange to previous generations. Social media showcases dramatic victories while carefully concealing the years of dedicated effort that made them possible. Success is equated with visible results, preferably quick ones that can be photographed and shared online. This creates a particular kind of paralysis in men who understand that most meaningful work develops slowly and often invisibly.

When we focus primarily on outcomes beyond our control, we find ourselves caught between two equally damaging responses. Either we freeze, refusing to act because we cannot guarantee the results we desire, or we despair when our faithful efforts yield no visible fruit. Both responses reveal that we have misunderstood what God truly requires of us.

The Biblical Foundation

Scripture makes this distinction with great clarity. Jeremiah spent decades prophesying to people who steadfastly refused to listen, yet God called him to faithfulness in proclamation rather than success in results. Joseph remained faithful during years of unjust imprisonment, with no guarantee that his situation would ever change. The parable of the sower illustrates the same principle: the sower's responsibility is faithful sowing, while soil conditions and the ultimate harvest remain beyond his control.

Paul articulates this explicitly: "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth." The roles are clearly divided between human duty and divine outcome. Your responsibility lies in obedience and faithfulness to what God has asked you to do, while God's responsibility encompasses the results, the timing, and the ultimate fruit. Confusing these roles creates men who either will not act without guarantees or who fall apart when good work produces no immediate visible results.

The principle runs consistently throughout Scripture: God assigns the duty, and God determines the outcomes. Faithfulness itself is the measure. "Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life." The reward is given for faithfulness maintained through difficulty, not for visible results achieved.

The Classical Echo

Classical philosophy arrives at very similar conclusions. Aristotle taught that virtue concerns the action itself rather than its consequences. The virtuous person acts rightly because it is right, not because the action produces desired outcomes. Character develops through choosing the right action regardless of what follows.

The Stoics drew an even sharper distinction between things that are "up to us" and those that are "not up to us." Marcus Aurelius advised himself to "do your duty, and leave the rest as it lies." Your choices, efforts, and character remain within your control, whereas others' responses, the timing of events, and ultimate outcomes lie beyond it. True wisdom lies in focusing your energy on what you can actually control while letting go of what you cannot.

Classical philosophy and Christian teaching converge on this essential point: your responsibility is to undertake right action faithfully. Outcomes remain beyond your ultimate control. Character develops through the faithful fulfilment of duty, regardless of visible results.

Raising Children

In helping raise my nine children, I have witnessed this principle play out in ways I could never have anticipated. Each child has grown up in the same home, received essentially the same instruction, and observed the same parental example day after day. Yet each has responded differently, making distinct choices as they have matured into independence.

A parent's duty encompasses faithful instruction about what is true and good, consistent discipline, demonstrated character, time invested in the relationship, and love expressed through both words and actions. However, how each child ultimately responds - the choices they make as adults, whether they embrace the faith you have taught them, and the direction their lives take - are matters that lie between them and God, rather than within your power to determine.

I have often had to learn, through difficult experience, that concern over these outcomes inevitably leads to one of two destructive patterns. Either you become controlling, attempting to micromanage your adult children's choices because you cannot bear the thought of them making decisions you believe to be wrong, or you fall into despair, interpreting their struggles as evidence that you have failed- that you did not do enough or did not do it correctly.

Some children respond quickly to faithful parenting, while others take years to absorb what they have been taught. Some may push back strongly during adolescence before eventually returning to the values instilled at home. Others choose entirely different paths. Your steadfastness as a parent can remain constant through all these varied outcomes, bringing a sense of peace that an obsession with results can never provide.

Physical Training

The same principle governs physical training and the care of your body. Your responsibility might include attending regular training sessions, maintaining proper nutrition, ensuring adequate rest, and applying progressive effort. However, how quickly strength develops, whether you achieve the physique you envision, whether injury interrupts your progress, and whether genetics favour your specific goals all lie largely beyond your direct control.

Rebuilding strength after 25 years of relative neglect has taught me that consistent effort matters more than dramatic results. Progress photographs and transformation stories create expectations that bear little resemblance to how most people actually experience training. They showcase outcomes while concealing the consistent daily work, the plateaus, the setbacks, and the slow, grinding progress.

Your responsibility lies in the daily work itself; the focused commitment and the progressive effort over time. Whether this yields results dramatic enough for social media is irrelevant to whether you are fulfilling your duty or building character through the discipline of training.

Speaking the Truth

When it comes to speaking the truth, the principle remains constant. Your duty is to speak clearly about what you believe, reason as soundly as possible, present evidence honestly, and address your audience fairly, even when you fundamentally disagree with them. However, whether people actually listen, find your arguments persuasive, change their minds, or whether you win the argument, all lie beyond your ultimate control.

You hold certain convictions based on reasoning and evidence that seem compelling to you. When appropriate opportunities arise, you articulate those convictions as clearly and fairly as possible. Whether people are ultimately persuaded is a matter between them and God. This alleviates the particular anxiety that prevents many men from speaking at all. The fear that, unless they can guarantee persuasion, their speech is wasted effort.

When you require converts to validate your convictions, you may find yourself either avoiding speech altogether or becoming desperate in your attempts at persuasion. However, when you speak out of duty, regardless of the response, you can remain calm and clear. You have done what was necessary; the outcome is not a burden you were meant to bear.

Common Objections

When I explain this principle, certain objections predictably arise. The first is whether this teaching encourages passivity. The answer is emphatically no. Duty requires vigorous action, sustained effort, and genuine commitment. Releasing attachment to the outcome is not the same as releasing effort. You work faithfully, train consistently, parent diligently, and speak honestly with full commitment. You simply do not measure your obedience by the visible results that follow. The passive person does nothing. The faithful person performs their duty with full vigour, regardless of outcomes beyond their control. These are opposite responses.

The second objection concerns whether you should ever adjust your approach if it is not producing the hoped-for results. Faithfulness is not the same as rigidity. You can modify your methods while maintaining your fundamental duty. A father whose particular approach is not reaching his child can try different methods while continuing faithful instruction. Similarly, a businessman whose initial strategy proves unworkable can pivot while maintaining excellent work and honest dealings. The question is whether you are being faithful to your fundamental duty, not whether your current methods are producing the expected outcomes within your preferred timeline.

Living the Principle

It is easy to become obsessed with outcomes beyond our control, to wait for guarantees that will never materialise, and to measure our obedience by results rather than by faithfulness. However, a more liberating path is available to us.

Begin with an honest assessment. Which actions are you avoiding because you cannot guarantee their success? What good work have you abandoned because the results disappointed you? Where are you measuring your obedience by outcomes rather than by faithfulness to your actual duty?

Learn to distinguish clearly between duty and outcome. Your duty is what God requires of you, what remains within your control, and what reflects your character regardless of the circumstances. The outcome is what God produces through your faithful actions, emerging from factors you can neither fully see nor control. You are responsible for the former; God is responsible for the latter.

Then act faithfully, regardless of the visible results you observe. Train consistently, whether or not your strength develops as quickly as you had hoped. Parent faithfully, whether or not your children respond as you wish. Work diligently, whether or not the market rewards your efforts. Speak the truth, whether or not people listen.

When you clearly understand that outcomes are not your responsibility to control, you find yourself free to act rightly, even when success remains uncertain. You discover peace amid genuine uncertainty because you have fulfilled your duty to the best of your ability. This enables sustained effort through true difficulty. When you are not crushed by disappointing outcomes, you can persist through setbacks that might otherwise cause you to abandon worthwhile work.

Character develops through faithful duty, regardless of whether that duty produces visible results within your timeline. A father who parents faithfully cultivates patience, wisdom, and genuine love, irrespective of how his children respond. A man who works diligently develops perseverance, capability, and integrity, regardless of whether the market rewards his efforts. No effort undertaken from genuine duty is ever wasted.

It is easy to obsess over outcomes beyond our control, to wait for guarantees that never come, and to be upset when your work yields no visible fruit. Yet the more liberating path is to understand that the duty is ours, while the outcome is God's. This is how men of genuine character act in uncertain times, how they maintain peace when results disappoint, and how they continue faithful service when the fruit remains hidden.

Perform your duty with complete commitment. Entrust the outcome to God, who perceives what you cannot and acts in ways beyond your understanding. Your responsibility is to act faithfully; His responsibility is the result.

The duty is ours; the outcome is God's.

Richard Morrissey