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.