Seeing Good
Do you see bad in people or good?
To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure. Their very minds and consciences are corrupted. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their actions. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.- Titus 1:15-16
In today's reading from Titus, we have a premise that might be hard to believe. We are told those who are pure see only good in the world and those who are corrupt, see only corruption.
If that is true, who then in the world can say they are truly pure?
Jesus told us that he knew the Father and we can know the Father too by knowing him. So, if we choose to know God, we should try to see the world the way Jesus saw it.
He pointed out corruption and hypocrisy, but he also saw value in the sinner. To him, all were redeemable, so all must be good at the core.
If we can see the world as good, doesn't that give us a better ability to do good?
I encounter people every day who are mired in disappointment. Everything they do has the potential to turn sour, along with much of the good that others try to do for them.
Do they bring it on themselves, or are they just super unlucky?
It could be they have latched onto the wrong star; they may be hanging with the wrong people.
It is true that those who seek to use and hurt others will find people who let them to just that. Perhaps those who become victims of abuse and poor treatment have no way out of their situation, but I want to believe that they have the power to do so.
If I help you climb out of a hole only to find you have fallen back in again later on, how often will I come back to help you out?
That, I believe, is the challenge of our faith. Is there a limit to what we can do?
So long as we believe in the good in people, we will try to find a way to call it out and have it vanquish the bad. But once we become cynical, once we let the thought slip into our minds that the person is inviting evil into their own lives, we may dismiss them as undeserving of our help.
That would be bad, I think. It would mean we all have a tendency to slip from loving to despising others.
This Lent, I pray that we come to see the value in everyone we encounter, and we seek that common thread of goodness that holds us together. The future depends on it.
More to come...