Kindness

I can't shut this down without recognizing the kindness resident in most of the people I know. I know it would be an insult to tell some dear people - including neighbors, family and friends who have read this blog - that the good they do is from God. That seems to be the message today which masquerades as orthodox Christianity. The companion line - that it is through man's sin that the world is evil - gives Christians the easiest of worlds - one that strips man of the right to take credit for good, while assessing him as the culpable party in the performance of us evil.

I don't think you can have it both ways, and certainly God wants man to walk according to what is actually in his heart, whether good or evil. There is no indication that anyone can be good enough to earn a ticket to the promised land, but good does have redeeming features, including its instructional value: good is better than evil; the after taste of doing good is sweeter than that when you do evil; good can't be eradicated by evil; good seems fragile, but it isn't; it seems absent, but it isn't; it exists in all societies throughout history, and it doesn't need a vocabulary word to identify it; it is a choice, an ongoing series of choices. But there is nothing supernatural about good. It is a completely natural response to the circumstances you're in. The easier life is, the easier it is to do good.

Think you are better than machete-wielding Rwandans, SS Storm Troopers in German Concentration Camps, , apartheid enforcing security forces in South Africa, Islamist extremists on 9/11, Christian Crusaders in the Dark Ages? These were probably mostly good people making evil chooses, in an atmosphere that encouraged such choices. They are responsible for what they did.

The kind of good I want is the good of turning the other cheek, of giving someone my jacket when they ask for it, of denying myself, taking up my greatest obstacle and following someone I can't hear or see. It's the good of meekness, of hope, faith and love, of being a peacemaker and bringing the kingdom of God in this world.

As good as good is, the higher call to something akin to holiness is better. I like being good, being kind, being enthusiastic, but I am challenged, and sometimes even pursue, something more impossible to achieve than anything I can do on my own. It's only fair that those who don't believe God and Jesus are real judge me not on my development as a natural man, but my development as a spiritual one.

They were first called Christians because people could see they had been with Him.

I don't want to strip you of your kindness.

Look at me carefully and see if there's a visible sign that I have been with Jesus Christ. I will settle for no lower standard of judgment.