GOODNESS IN ALL

Sometimes we Christians are accused of seeing everything through rose colored glasses. We want to see good in everything that happens and see the good in everyone even when it is at times most difficult to do. To tell the truth, it is indeed very difficult sometimes to see good in what is obviously evil, to see the good in a person who has just committed a heinous action. Yet we know and believe that nothing and no one is completely and totally devoid of goodness.

Why? Why is there nothing that is pure evil, no one who is totally corrupt no matter how evil he seems? The reason is simple: God. God is the creator of everything and every human being. As a result there is goodness, Godness in all. And while we good people sometimes do some very bad, very evil, very ungodly deeds, God still remains in us. God’s Holy Spirit never abandons us completely.

Granted, it sometimes seems that there are those for whom evil is a way of life and that nothing good will ever come from them. And that is true, as long as they persist in their evil and sinful ways. But because they are now and always will remain God’s children no matter what kinds of evil they perpetrate, there is still the possibility for them to turn from their evil ways and repent.

Thus, no matter how evil someone seems, we know there is some good in that person somewhere and that it is our responsibility to discover that goodness and help the person himself discover it as well. We may not be successful because our love and concern can be rejected. But it will not go entirely for naught. The one whom we are trying to turn around has experienced our love and love is the antidote to evil.

We know all this to be true because we have been on the other end. Whenever we take the time to reflect upon those moments in our lives when we had been very, very selfish, when what we had done was truly detestable and disobedient, we realize that we never truly lost our bearings. Something or someone somehow in some way saved us from ourselves and got us back on the straight and narrow.

Perhaps it is only through those rose colored glasses that we are able to see what we should see even when we would rather not, when we would like to simply walk away and leave the one who hurt us so badly to go to his personal hell. But because we can see the good that is still there, buried as it might be deep within that person, we need to do all we can do to bring that good to the surface.

It begins by our trying as best we can to see the goodness and the godliness that is in everyone. That may not be easy to do especially if we have been hurt by that person. It may even seem impossible at that moment and probably is. But that moment will pass.

It will indeed take work to forgive but we will not be working alone. The God in that person will work with us, just as the God living in us brought out the goodness in us after we came to our senses because of the love of someone else.

GOD DOES NOT ACT LIKE US, THANK GOD

One of the reasons, perhaps the main reason, why we sometimes have so much difficulty in understanding God and God’s infinite love and forgiveness is that we think God acts the way we do. Sometimes we think, and perhaps secretly hope, that God treats others just as we treat others. This is especially true when it comes to our own sinfulness, when we deliberately hurt others, often for what we believe are justifiable reasons. We have been hurt and we believe it is all right to hurt in return.

We do not deny that we are sinners even as we try to find reasons to excuse our selfish actions. We know we have sinned and we know we have offended our God. That is a given. But what we, at least somewhere in the back of our minds, also consider a given is that God should and will punish us for those sins. Again and after all, is that not the mindset we have when we deal with fellow human beings when they selfishly hurt us? We want those who have caused us pain to have to suffer pain in return. That is only fair and just, is it not?

That is a very human emotion and reaction. We want to get even. We often attempt to get even. Because we cannot undo the harm that has been inflicted upon us or erase the pain and suffering that we endured, we feel we have to get some measure of revenge. We simply cannot allow the sinner to get off scot-free. Unconditional forgiveness is almost if not beyond the pale of our imagination.

What is unfortunate is that we transfer this human way of behaving and thinking to God. If we cannot simply forgive and forget, how can God? Why should God? Sinners that we are, how can we ever stand before God, especially in death, “holy and blameless and irreproachable”, to use Paul’s words. We know we are not holy. We sinned and sinned often. We have no one else to blame but ourselves and we know it. And irreproachable? Get serious!

And yet we will indeed be able to stand before God in just such a state. Our sins will not only be forgiven but they will not even be remembered. They will be erased from memory and we will stand before God with a clean slate. The only problem is that as much as we want to believe that truth of our faith, we find it quite difficult to do so. Why? Again, I believe the reason is that we think God thinks and acts as we do even as we hope God does not. Thankfully God does not.

Now none of this means that we have a blank check to do whatever we want, sin as much as we desire, because God always forgives us. That is nonsense. The reason why we stop hurting those we love is that we hurt ourselves in the process. The reason why we stop doing anything selfish and sinful is that we finally come to grips with how much pain we have caused.

What it does mean is that our response to God’s ultimate graciousness and forgiveness is to live a life of loving thanks as best we can, knowing we will often fail each day of our lives but resolving to be better the next day. That is all we can do and all God expects.

THE WILL OF GOD

THE WILL OF GOD

 “The will of God”: we use that term almost offhandedly, even rather blithely at times, even as we have not the foggiest notion of what we are talking about. Yet when something happens that we cannot understand, that makes no sense whatsoever to us – or to anyone else for that matter – whether good or bad, whether to someone else or to us, we conclude that it is the result of the will of God. This may or may not be true, but how else to explain it?

Taken to the ultimate, if everything is the result of God’s will, both good and bad, especially bad, the very, very bad, then we have no will, no free will. We are simply automatically doing what God has programmed us to do since our inception. What is worse, if this were true, then the obvious conclusion is that we are not and would not be held responsible for anything we do. It would all be the result of the direct will of the God who created us.

We certainly do not believe this to be the case even though at those times when we have done something very wrong and sinful, we wish it were it so. If it were so, we would be off the hook as far as guilt and responsibility are concerned. In all truth we also certainly do not want that to be the way it is. We do not know that to be the way it is. Because we do not in any way know God’s ways. We simply believe it is not God’s way to have created us God’s robots. We believe God gives us free will and because of that, we are held responsible for our actions.

And yet, and yet: even though we understand we must take responsibility for our actions, both good and bad, what about those other events that defy explanation, any explanation, other than they must be the result of the will of God? Actions like hurricanes (Harvey) that devastate, epidemics that wipe out thousands, stillborn babies, paralyzing illnesses: how do we explain these events other than that they are the will of God?

The truth is, try as we might, we do not understand and we cannot explain why, to put it simply, that bad things happen to good and innocent people. Sometimes we cannot even explain why we do bad things to good and otherwise innocent people. It is the problem of evil all over again. Whenever something bad happens that cannot be explained by the free will of human beings, because of our sinfulness, the only one we can blame is God. And sometimes we do especially when that bad has happened to us or to someone we love dearly. We have to blame someone, don’t we?

As people of faith we do not like blaming God for the evil in this world. We do not want to blame it on the devil either because the devil doesn’t commit any sin. We do. We certainly would like to blame much of the evil we do on someone or something else, but we cannot. We simply do not understand God’s ways. Even more, sometimes we do not even understand our ways.

We do not have all the answers. “The will of God”: it often causes more problems than it resolves. 

FINDING THE RIGHT PARTNER

The first human being according to the creation parable in the first book of the Bible was not happy. S/he (does it matter the gender?) discovered that one can have all the possessions in the world, can live in Paradise, can win the lottery of life, whatever that means and whatever it would entail, and still not be happy. Something was missing from all this abundance, all this pleasure, all this. What was missing, was not something but someone.

It did not take long, again according to the story, for this first human being to realize that unless s/he had someone to share Paradise with, it all amounted to a hill of beans, if even that. Material possessions cannot compensate for loneliness, for being alone. It never has and it never will given who we are as human beings. Sometimes we are seduced into thinking that it will, perhaps even trying by accumulating more and more, but we soon discover it won’t.

Material possessions, even great wealth, only give monetary pleasure. The joy of the new thing, the latest gadget, the biggest and best whatever lasts only for a short time. Then we have to move on to something else to substitute for what we are really wanting and needing and that is another person to share, not our possession, but our life. Sadly, all too often it seems that we only appreciate the other when the other is absent from us and not until then.

What we also discover is that we can be as poor as the proverbial church mouse and still be happy, satisfied, fulfilled simply because we have someone to share our life with, someone who loves us and cares for us just as we are and who we are and not because of what we do or do not possess materially. Young couples who struggle together when finances are tight find that their love for each other grows deeper every day in that mutual struggle.

Perhaps that is what the biblical writer was getting at when he tells us that these two people were naked. They were saying to each other, “This is who I am. Love me as I am. Share my life just as I am. Anything I add – clothing, possessions, wisdom, talents – won’t change who I am. I am not ashamed for who I am or for what you see, for what you see is me. Be my life partner.”

One does not have to be married to find a life partner. One’s life partner does not have to be of the opposite sex and physical sex is only one small and insignificant and not necessarily a necessary part of the relationship. What is important is the mutual sharing of life and love. All else is add-on and for the betterment of the relationship. But it is and always will remain an add-on, good but not necessary.

Finding the right partner, the best friend, the blood-brother/sister, makes us want to say, even shout, to God, “Lord, thank you, thank you, for giving us one another to share this life with, its joys and sorrows, its ups and downs, yesterday, today and all the tomorrows to come. Amen.”