Monday, September 26, 2011

On a Scale of 1-10, How Good are You?

Are you a good person?  Yes, for the most part, you believe you are.  You try.  In the balance of things, weighing your good deeds over the bad, you are sure that your good deeds outweigh the bad.  At least you hope so.

Is there evil in the world?  Yes, anyone who follows the news on a daily basis—be it local, national, or international—is sure of it.  There are not only bad people in the world there are downright evil people that do terribly evil things.  Just consider the international human/child slave trafficking problem we have in the world, for one.

But here’s a question, how many bad deeds does a person have to do before he or she becomes truly “evil”?  Or, out of a hundred let’s say, exactly how many good deeds over bad deeds must a person do in order to qualify as a truly good person, 60/40, 70/30, 90/20, 95/5?  We already know that no one does 100/100.

When we are caught doing wrong, the first thing we say in self-defense is, “Well, nobody’s perfect” coupled with “I made a mistake,” or “I didn’t mean to do it.”  We seldom fess-up, admitting full guilt: “Yes, I did it, I knew it was wrong—lying, stealing, cheating, immoral, false, bad, corrupt—but I chose to do it anyway.  I was just hoping that I’d actually get away with it and not get caught.”

One day, a rich man came up to Jesus and asked a direct question of him: “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  But before responding to the point of the question, Jesus took him to task respecting his assumptions about goodness, “Why do you call me good?” Jesus said, “no one is good but God alone” (Mark 10:17-22).  Do you even know what real “goodness” is, is what Jesus was driving at.

Everyone, all of us are guilty of doing wrong.  We’ve lied and we’ve stolen.  We’ve mistreated and offended others, and have hurt others badly.  We’ve been selfish, arrogant, rude, and have been inconsiderate and disrespectful toward others.  Thus, we not only are not perfect, we are also not innocent and are most certainly guilty.  How then should we define “good”?

The Bible tells us that even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).  So what is a good person really like?  And if evil can disguise itself as good how do we tell the difference?  And are such questions even important in today’s modern world?

Indeed they are!  In the ebb and flow of history, nations and peoples go to war in the name of justice with righteous indignation, good versus evil, right over wrong, and so on and so forth.  In a way it is what the Arab Spring is all about; consider the motive within Libya's battle against Gadhafi’s oppressive regime.

But the trajectory of human goodness and badness begins with the little things, the little white lies that we justify telling, the small things that we justify taking, the little offenses we commit against others due to our own arrogance or greed or personal insecurities or self-righteousness.

Is it possible that what is missing both in the public arena as well as in the personal private arena, and what is fading quickly from the political arena is what used to be called good ole-fashioned integrity?  Whatever happened to the golden rule: “treat others as you would have others treat you”?  What happened to such proverbial values to live by, such as “an honest day’s work deserves an honest day’s pay,” or “be trustworthy, true to your word,” or “mean what you say and say what you mean,” or “judge not lest you be judged,” or “be gracious, compassionate, and merciful”?

These principles, values, and truths will never expire or become outdated and irrelevant.  We should expect such of our politicians as well as our employers, employees, teachers, students, and well, everyone—and that, despite the fact that “no one is perfect,” for it is keeping and holding up the standard that counts.

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