Accountability

This speed sign on Military Road attempts to keep drivers accountable for their speed in relation to the speed limit. Almost every car going by is over the speed limit. I drive this route, too, just about ever day that I come to the church. This little sign is my accountability. I am almost never under the speed limit.
I haven't posted in this blog an entry since last Wednesday, April 3. Did I keep my commitment to walk everyday and who is holding me accountable? Well...the theory is that my public blog will keep me accountable for doing it, but it doesn't quite work out that way. On Thursday, April 4, I did walk, and I visited two other churches in the neighborhood--an Episcopalian, where I introduced myself to the new rector--and the Methodist church where the pastor wasn't in, but whose secretary gave me some good information. So theoretically, those two visits gave me some accountability. I thought of a new line to open a joke, but I don't have the punch line yet--"A Methodist, an Episcopalian, and a Presbyterian walk into a coffee shop..."
The next day, Friday, my day off, I "walked" around my yard for an hour and did raking and clean up. On the next day, Saturday I did my 'walking' with water aerobics in the pool, but not for an hour, only about 45 minutes. On Sunday, I didn't walk, and yesterday, Monday, I did my hour 'walking' around my yard again, as it seems pressing to have all the winter cleanup done before the mulchers come next Friday. So... am I living up to my own pledge?
It's hard. Accountability may be the one Christian discipline that is the most difficult. Anyone who has made a New Year's resolution knows this well.
Today, I am reminded of accountability, and I did walk for an hour. When no one holds us accountable for doing hard things, it's easy to let them slide. However, some day there will be a reckoning, because God is just.