Good or Bad?
“Praise the LORD; for the LORD is good..” Psalm 135:3
I was not surprised when my three year old daughter interrupted me with the question, “Daddy, is he a good prince or is he a mean prince?”. I am quite used to the various variations of this question by now. “Is he a good bear?”, “Is she a mean sister?” and so on. Somewhere in my trying to entertain my kids, one day I started making up stories, and soon it has become one of their favorite activities. We have created quite a few adventures together. But one thing never changes. Every time a new character is introduced, my three year old daughter will interrupt me to ask me if that character is good or bad. Before she wants to know the name, or how great the character is, she is interested in knowing if the character is good? I think her simple question tingles of that great philosophical quest of man.
Man, consciously or subconsciously, in every encounter wants to know if the person or creature he encounters is good? Consider our normal conversations. Two friends meet, and while talking they realize they know someone else in common. More often than not, one of them will say, “O, so-and-so, he is a good man”, or “she is really a nice person.” Or, occasionally the reverse of that. Nevertheless, we are always engaged in a quest of judging everyone we encounter by some internal human standard of ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
GK Chesterton, in his book, “Heretics”, alluding to the story of “Jack the Giant Killer” refers to the same thing when he says, “Jack was the champion of the enduring human standards, ……Jack was quite unimpressed by the question of whether the giant was a particularly gigantic giant. All he wished to know was whether he was a good giant--that is, a giant who was any good to us. What were the giant's religious views; what his views on politics and the duties of the citizen? Was he fond of children--or fond of them only in a dark and sinister sense? To use a fine phrase for emotional sanity, was his heart in the right place?”
I suggest that man, made in the image of God, cannot erase this moral code written in his heart. He may explain it away, he may maul the standard, or attribute it to something else, but in its essence he cannot deny it. He knows that there is something that is “good”, and that something that is “bad”. And instinctively, his heart desires that which is good.
The Psalmist in the Bible is quite exultant when he declares, “Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good!” Man may rejoice in this absolute standard of goodness. It is because the Lord is good, we rejoice and praise. It is because He is good, we can trust in Him. In that perennially favorite story by CS Lewis, “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe”, as the children get ready to meet Aslan the Lion, Lucy hearing the description that Mrs. Beaver has just given of Aslan, says, "Then he isn't safe?" "Safe?" said Mr. Beaver, "don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good!" God too is not safe, but He is good! The Psalmist may praise God for His power, He may praise God for the great things He has done, but all of those things would only cause dread, not bring forth praise, if He were not good.
But there is something that even the Psalmist could not gauge. He only had a hazy experience and assurance of God’s goodness. What the Psalmist could see dimly, we can see clearly in Christ! In God we see the essential goodness, and in Christ we see the practical manifestation of this goodness towards us. In Him we see the perfect standard of goodness. Paul, writing to the Romans, said, “do you despise the richness of His goodness, forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” Any one seriously looking at cross of Calvary where Christ, the Son of God, was crucified for us cannot but be moved to repentance by the goodness that God has shown us in Christ. Praise the Lord; for the Lord is good!
Danesh Manik
_______________________
"A Soul’s Anchor” is a daily inspirational message prepared to challenge your mind, inspire your heart, and motivate you to anchor your soul in the person of Jesus Christ.
If you know a friend who would enjoy receiving "A Soul’s Anchor" in their email box each day, tell them they can sign up by emailing us at subscribe@asoulsanchor.org . The messages may also be read at our website, http://www.asoulsanchor.org. To unsubscribe, please email, unsubscribe@asoulsanchor.org with your email in the subject line. To change to a weekly instead of a daily subscription, email weekly@asoulsanchor.org with your email in the subject line. For receiving messages by mail, please write to us at A Soul’s Anchor, India International Church, 3654 Okemos Rd., Okemos, MI 48864
I was not surprised when my three year old daughter interrupted me with the question, “Daddy, is he a good prince or is he a mean prince?”. I am quite used to the various variations of this question by now. “Is he a good bear?”, “Is she a mean sister?” and so on. Somewhere in my trying to entertain my kids, one day I started making up stories, and soon it has become one of their favorite activities. We have created quite a few adventures together. But one thing never changes. Every time a new character is introduced, my three year old daughter will interrupt me to ask me if that character is good or bad. Before she wants to know the name, or how great the character is, she is interested in knowing if the character is good? I think her simple question tingles of that great philosophical quest of man.
Man, consciously or subconsciously, in every encounter wants to know if the person or creature he encounters is good? Consider our normal conversations. Two friends meet, and while talking they realize they know someone else in common. More often than not, one of them will say, “O, so-and-so, he is a good man”, or “she is really a nice person.” Or, occasionally the reverse of that. Nevertheless, we are always engaged in a quest of judging everyone we encounter by some internal human standard of ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
GK Chesterton, in his book, “Heretics”, alluding to the story of “Jack the Giant Killer” refers to the same thing when he says, “Jack was the champion of the enduring human standards, ……Jack was quite unimpressed by the question of whether the giant was a particularly gigantic giant. All he wished to know was whether he was a good giant--that is, a giant who was any good to us. What were the giant's religious views; what his views on politics and the duties of the citizen? Was he fond of children--or fond of them only in a dark and sinister sense? To use a fine phrase for emotional sanity, was his heart in the right place?”
I suggest that man, made in the image of God, cannot erase this moral code written in his heart. He may explain it away, he may maul the standard, or attribute it to something else, but in its essence he cannot deny it. He knows that there is something that is “good”, and that something that is “bad”. And instinctively, his heart desires that which is good.
The Psalmist in the Bible is quite exultant when he declares, “Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good!” Man may rejoice in this absolute standard of goodness. It is because the Lord is good, we rejoice and praise. It is because He is good, we can trust in Him. In that perennially favorite story by CS Lewis, “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe”, as the children get ready to meet Aslan the Lion, Lucy hearing the description that Mrs. Beaver has just given of Aslan, says, "Then he isn't safe?" "Safe?" said Mr. Beaver, "don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good!" God too is not safe, but He is good! The Psalmist may praise God for His power, He may praise God for the great things He has done, but all of those things would only cause dread, not bring forth praise, if He were not good.
But there is something that even the Psalmist could not gauge. He only had a hazy experience and assurance of God’s goodness. What the Psalmist could see dimly, we can see clearly in Christ! In God we see the essential goodness, and in Christ we see the practical manifestation of this goodness towards us. In Him we see the perfect standard of goodness. Paul, writing to the Romans, said, “do you despise the richness of His goodness, forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” Any one seriously looking at cross of Calvary where Christ, the Son of God, was crucified for us cannot but be moved to repentance by the goodness that God has shown us in Christ. Praise the Lord; for the Lord is good!
Danesh Manik
_______________________
"A Soul’s Anchor” is a daily inspirational message prepared to challenge your mind, inspire your heart, and motivate you to anchor your soul in the person of Jesus Christ.
If you know a friend who would enjoy receiving "A Soul’s Anchor" in their email box each day, tell them they can sign up by emailing us at subscribe@asoulsanchor.org . The messages may also be read at our website, http://www.asoulsanchor.org. To unsubscribe, please email, unsubscribe@asoulsanchor.org with your email in the subject line. To change to a weekly instead of a daily subscription, email weekly@asoulsanchor.org with your email in the subject line. For receiving messages by mail, please write to us at A Soul’s Anchor, India International Church, 3654 Okemos Rd., Okemos, MI 48864
posted by Danesh Manik | 5:58 PM
1 Comments:
A nice one .....good illustrations .
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