Fruits and Values Series #6: Goodness

Frankly, among all the fruits and values in this series, the one I have the least clue on how to write about is goodness. It is a very vast topic and there are so many thoughts going on that I am trying to tackle one by one. I am VERY SURE everyone has different definition of what goodness is. Nevertheless, here is just my take on goodness from a Christian's point of view. This is my personal opinion, writing from my own experiences so please don't stone me. Hehe, thank you.

Goodness

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Oh my goodness is my most common exclamation, which my 2.5 year-old son has picked up! It is basically an interjection used when one is in shock or amazement. Besides that, we usually greet each other with 'good morning', 'good day', 'goodnight' etc. So what actually is goodness?

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Goodness is about character - integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people. ~Dennis Prager
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Having read this, I agree to a certain extent but I was thinking there could be more, so I went on to dig deeper: how good is goodness? Goodness to me, is so much in an abstract form which is also very subjective from individual to individual, makes me really do not know how to even find a picture to depict it.

Thus, I went to find the language with richer embodiment of words - Hebrew. In the Old Testament of the Bible, the Hebrew word for goodness is towb, hesed, kalos, agathos, chrestos which carry different weight of meaning.

You may read more about the elaboration on goodness in the Bible here with this study tool.

So why would I fear the future?
For your goodness and love pursue me all the days of my life.
Then afterward, when my life is through,
I’ll return to your glorious presence to be forever with you! ~Psalm 23:6 (The Passion Translation)

This is my favourite quote/verse about goodness!

The Hebrew meaning for each word for part of the verse, which I have read from [here].(http://biblehub.com/lexicon/psalms/23-6.htm)

The words for good/goodness come from the word towb (tobe) which is being good in the WILDEST sense. It doesn't just "follow" us but it radaph (raw-daf') which means hunts us down violently and recklessly to show tobe which is goodness.

Can We Have Goodness?

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The only way I know to have goodness is by receiving goodness. When we receive it, it would change us to show goodness as well. Thus, I would like to propose that goodness is a nature inherited but to activate it, it requires reflection of something we see/learn/experience/receive.

I truly believe that everyone of us have goodness and can show goodness because it is in our nature. However, some of us may have concluded that we aren't meant to be good but still, there bound to be some people that we would still show the goodness within. Some say that before one passes on, suddenly there will be goodness shining through no matter how cruel the person may be before that.

It is also natural that when we receive goodness, our hearts and being would change towards goodness more and more. Just like punishment may changed a person, goodness has even greater power in this process of transformation. At times, we hear people say: "Don't show me goodness anymore, I can't take it!" or "you are too good for me, I'm not worth it!". That is precisely how goodness works. It makes us feel unworthy and cannot take it anymore.

My friend, you and I are made in goodness and for goodness, so of course we can have goodness!

Remember when we were young and we were playing pretend-play, we were asked if we want to be the good guys or the bad guys, I would always want to choose to be the good guys though we did take turns. It just shows naturally in us, we want to be good.

Man has two great spiritual needs. One is for forgiveness. The other is for goodness. ~Billy Graham
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My Personal Conclusion of Goodness

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In my opinion, there's no goodness comparable to the Good God I know. What touches me the most is I know He has always been Almighty, Great, Able, but He always CHOOSES to be GOOD. There are really many who are great in power, but it is totally a different thing when they choose to be good.

Finally, I have to conclude on my end that what God has done and how He is is THE definition of goodness: When He stood in atonement for sin as us, when He decided that His goodness has to be initiated first to get to our hearts, when He wants to show us His goodness eagerly and yet knows we may not be able to take it or want it, when He is still constantly purposefully taking care of the things we cannot be in control of like our breathing and our heartbeat, when He wants to relate and pursue us with a covenants love and the like. Whether we are good or not, it is irrelevant to Him, because no matter what, His nature is goodness and He won't stop being good to us.

I know many may think that why Christians (especially) are living in denial with their jargon: "God is good, all the time and all the time, God is good!" There are so many bad things and disasters, diseases happening in this world and I'm still saying God is good? So many heartaches, adversities, wars and you dare say God is good?! This is what often thrown at us actually. Honestly I have no answer. But one day, my wise husband was talking to me about this Good God we are believing in and trust me, he gets asked this question much more than I do because he is a pastor. He said this: Since everyone has been noticing about the bad happenings and say it doesn't tally with God's nature of being good, but what about the good things that are happening? Don't they reflect God's goodness? Like a baby who is just born, like someone who got his first pay, like someone who won something, like an unexpected act of random kindness etc. Whoa, that blew me away! We are often focus in scrutinizing everything to prove that God isn't good, but how about the many proofs that He is? It is in the "storms" or troubles that His goodness remains as a constant. It is not affected and swayed by what may seem terrible at the moment of time. He is not limited by time or space. His goodness is not limited even by how we think of Him, whether we believe Him or not.

I know two songs about goodness that always makes me want to dance whenever I listen to them:

Lord Your Goodness by Hillsong. I remember I was literally dancing like a mad woman when I first listened to this song in my Walkman with cassette last time half way ironing my school uniform, Hahaha!

You Are Good by Bethel. We had this song in a dear friend's wedding just last weekend. My son and I danced till we sweated in an air con room!

God's goodness is beyond our expectation and supersedes our limited minds too! God's goodness brings along love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. Sometimes, we may feel unworthy of it, but we are to celebrate it! (Sometimes, it also brings us to tears.)

Our Nature

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Putting aside the Christian view, if we say we met someone who is extraordinarily evil, we cannot conclude that he has no goodness in him either. It could be a result of the hurts, traumas or mistreatment in his upbringing that makes him estranged to goodness. If he receives goodness and get used to it, he too can reflect goodness. This includes what we speak to ourselves: If we think good of ourselves, we really can be good. Again, I would like to propose that goodness is a reflection.

To a certain extent, goodness talks about kindness, morality and righteousness, but even these words which are seemingly the synonyms to goodness do not adequately explains goodness. Again, like the other fruits of this series, it is not just an outward behavioral modification but it is a work within. It is us human beings reflecting the Creator Who is good. It could be even better than reflection, it is our inheritance as His children, like how we inherit genes from our parents.

Goodness isn't a bad thing, it is in fact a good thing, pun intended.

Thank you for reading my post on goodness, even though this topic is very raw and perhaps not expounded to the best I can. Should you be interested to read about the other topics in this Fruits and Values Series, feel free to link:

Fruits and Values Series #1: Love

Fruits and Values Series #2: Joy and Happiness

Fruits and Values Series #3: Peace

Fruits and Values Series #4: Patience

Fruits and Values Series #5: Kindness

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