The Good: Remember that strange guy that no one ever wanted to be around and you were the only person who tolerated him without insulting him? He chose you to be his friend without your consent. He automatically saw something in you that was protective for him. You thought it was a weakness but it was really him reading you like a book. It was his ability to see that you were not threatening that finally convinced you that deep down inside you were a good person. You didn’t quite understand it but you were a good person wasting away in your own goodness. Good like you didn’t know you were good. It was you, wrapped in the good that wasn’t good enough for you to love it. Why? Because you controlled the good and you had no idea what to do with it or what it was all about. Driven by a healthy respect for humankind, you thought people were basically good and deserving of kindness. You thought good was a product of the “universe” but there was a sharp, defensive edge to your goodness that made you avoid self-involvement that might lead to vulnerability. You gave just enough of yourself to be comfortable that you were good. You possessed the power to extend or withhold your goodness as you saw fit and you used it as your feelings dictated.
The Bad: A good person thrown into the jaws of Corporate America will never survive. It’s cutthroat and only the cutthroats will get ahead. The minute anyone is labeled “nice guy” they will immediately become the crash dummy and a regular speed bump for the corporate bus. The good person in a relationship always gets trashed. They’re no fun, they’re weak and probably too pampered by their parents. The good person in a competition is a bore. They run a boring race; too basic; too fundamental; too honest. They don’t stand a chance in a world where a morning punch-in-the-face is business as usual. Being good is no defense against the bad in this world.
The Perfect: Enter salvation and good meets perfection! We are grafted into the body of the most perfect. Our standard of behavior is no longer driven by the perceptions of other people or the culture of the groups we were involuntarily grafted into. After trials and learning and bending and molding and praying, and rejecting the cynicism of the, “it’s bad to be good” philosophy, we must finally hand over our remote control for good, to a good Father and allow the good to be magnified by the Source of all good. Then the good becomes real good; uncomplicated by personality or attitude. Good old fashioned good with no strings attached; no ulterior motives. Good God! Our good is the by-product of God’s perfection. It isn’t a chore or an accomplishment. We don’t do good, we become good; perfect even: the image of Christ.
The Word issues an outright challenge to the human profile of a “good person”. It requires us to disregard the norms and habits of the outside world. “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” Matthew 5:46-48 (NKJV).
To be compared to a tax collector is to be compared to an outsider, a traitor or even a thief. And yet, even the outcast loves his own and apparently even they, believed themselves to be good.
But good is not easy. In fact it’s impossible without God. If we are doing good in the same manner as the world around us, we are probably gritting our teeth and grinding it out on a quest for comfort in a setting that is completely unnatural. God has the controls to our goodness.
When I find myself thinking about my goodness, I’ve usually done something that wasn’t!
civilwritesdotme 