How to Be Good

Contents I Assessing the Good 7 II The Mission Moment 31 III Good Acts in Action 41 IV Manifestations of Sacrifice 55 V Reciprocating God's Goodness VI The Wonder of Obedience 65 VII The Good That Love Brings . VIII Obstacles to the Flow of God's Goodness 85 IX Living by the Power of Goodness 101 X Manipulations of Goodness 125 -------- First Article (partial) + + + Assessing the Good Good is a word-and more. It represents a descrip tion. It is a word applied with great ease and fre quency. It is so versatile it can apply to anything, a piece of paper, a curtain, even a person. Good is like a piece of taffy; it stretches. It doesn't cease with "good morning." It is drawn out with a "good afternoon" followed by "good evening" and the beautiful and sometimes romantic, "good night." Life is fiUed with the word. There is the good neighbor, good faith, and sayings like "Good golly. Miss Molly," "The greatest good for the greatest number," "Lady be good," and "The good, the bad. 8 / I AM A GOOD PERSON and the ugly." There is the Cape of Good Hope, good fortune, Good Queen Bess, The Good Shep herd, and Goodyear Tires. Good is an infestation. There is more good in the world than there are ants crawling in the jungles, and, I am advised by the bug people, they too are good. Good is cross-cultural; it crosses religious bounda ries, it has no sex discrimination, and it has no terri torial bias. Good speaks for unity because it can be derived from everything imaginable. each for the Good in the clay and the dirt, and build your statue ofpriceless worth; Stroke the good in coloring, then paint the lovely birds that sing. Find the good in afallen tree, and let it shelter yourfamily. Take an "o" from "good;" God is there. Good, Uke God, is everywhere. ASSESSING THE GOOD / 9 The Primary Mover of All That Is Good At the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. there is a huge pendulum attached by a cord high up on the ceiling. Its function is to move back and forth. But who caused it to move? Just like the pendulum, the universe had a start and God made that first move. Nothing moved until He gave a first nudge. A good act is like that. It won't happen unless someone initiates it. Someone first notices a need and says, for example, "I wiU help build that house for the poor," or "I will share my potatoes." It follows that if you have abundant power, you can do great things. However, if you have only potatoes, then potatoes are the best you can give. But why do we give the vegetables? Perhaps be cause there is hunger, and we have compassion. We may give because the crop was good, and, having more than we needed for ourselves, we share out of our abundance. We may give because we anticipate something in return or because we want to show off and give our good image a face-Uft. But something is left out. When citing the various reasons for per forming a good act we forgot the most significant one of all, obedience to God. We fulfill another's need not because of self-interests, which are often 10 / I AM A GOOD PERSON ruled by unbridled emotions, but because we obey God. "Love your neighbor as yourself," is His clear directive. When there is an observed need, we listen at two levels of obedience. First, we listen at the level of the person's need, hke hunger. The condition speaks out as clearly as words. Second, we listen to God and hear, "Obey my word; feed the hungry." The belief system is with God. All guidance, therefore, for combining need with the appropriate good act, oc curs with a fervent desire to obey God. God Created Man and He Called It Very Good When God created earth. He called it "good," and when He created man. He called him "very good." Likewise, the role of man is to convert the raw mate rial, the changeable gifts of the earth, which are good, to a very good, self-serving, practical condi tion. The gift of a tree, for example, is good. How ever, utilizing intellect, the tree can be made into a house, which is very good. (More insid