My Goodness
Several years ago, I took my sons, Scott and Jake to an Angels baseball game at Angel Stadium in Anaheim. It was crowded, so we parked south of the stadium, across Orangewood Avenue in an office complex for easier access and fewer fees. We were walking to cross Orangewood when I noticed the crosswalk numbers counting down, so I started to run, but just as I got into the crosswalk, the light turned yellow, so I turned around. I thought we could make it, so I turned around again, and the three of us literally ran a red light, but we made it across the street with no problem.
Only there was one problem. A motorcycle cop raced toward us; he jumped off his bike, took off his helmet, and started screaming at us. I think he started yelling before he even got his helmet all the way off. He was obviously triggered, and he just kept shouting at us. “This is my street, and nobody is going to get killed on my street under my watch! This is my street; this is my street!”
He told us it was his street so many times that whenever we are in that area, driving on Orangewood Avenue, or just seeing the Orangewood exit on the 57 freeway, we will tell the others in the car, “I happened to meet the guy who owns this street, the guy it was named after, Officer Orangewood.”
Anyway, he went from hollering to interrogating. He had us lined up like plebs before the drill sergeant. “How old are you?” he asked me at the top of his lungs. “How old are you?”
Have you ever forgotten how old you were? All I could think was, “Ten, I think I’m ten.” Before I could say anything, the cop asked Scott and Jake the same question. Neither answered.
He kept screaming as he stormed back to his bike, and as he put his helmet back on, he shouted one more thing, “Be better!” Then he rode off.
I immediately apologized to my sons for this case study of bad parenting. We were traumatized, and it took a while for each of us to remember our actual ages.
But one thing stuck with me: Be better!
According to Billy Graham, “Man has two great spiritual needs. One is for forgiveness. The other is for goodness.”
So, how do we get better? How do we get good? How do we get goodness, for goodness sake? How can we increase our good quotient? Good question.
Good news:
We were created good!
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. —Genesis 1:31 (NIV)
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. –Psalm 139:13-14 (NIV)
God’s original design for us human beings was good, whole, sufficiently great. We were made in the image of God for goodness.
Bad news:
We messed up. Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and evil began to take over.
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. –Isaiah 64:6 (NIV)
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? --Jeremiah 17:9 (KJV)
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. —Mark 10:18 (NIV)
No one is righteous...No one is truly wise… No one seeks God… No one does good ...No one knows the way of peace…No one fears God. –Romans 3:10-12. 17-18 (NLT)
In other news:
We are called to do good and be good and to be known for good works.
Turn from evil and do good. –Psalm 27:27 (NIV)
Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds…--Matthew 5:16 (NIV)
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. –Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)
We’re created good, but we lost our goodness, yet we’re still called to be good.
How can we get good? How do I increase my goodness, how do you increase yours?
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. - Galatians 5:16-26 (NIV)
The Apostle Paul acknowledged the good vs evil dilemma that goes on inside each of us. We were created good, but lost in evil, yet we’re supposed to be good. Good grief. Those are not good vibrations!
What is the answer?
Goodness comes from God.
The word “good” is from the Old English root word “gōd.” Goodness is not a quality we can manufacture on our own.
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights." -- James 1:17 (NIV)
“All the goodness I have within me is totally from the Lord alone. When I sin, it is from me and is done on my own, but when I act righteously, it is wholly and completely of God.” --Charles Spurgeon
Goodness comes from God because God is good.
Good and upright is the Lord. –Psalm 25:8 (NIV)
Enter His gates with thanksgiving, And His courtyards with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting. And His faithfulness is to all generations. Psalm 100:4-5 (NASB)
Goodness comes from God because God is good. We get good by getting God in our lives.
The "fruit of the Spirit" describes characteristics we could never have without the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. We are not to be conceited, provoking or envying each other. We are simply supposed to let God’s goodness flow through us.
A young man, let’s call him Ralph, contacted me a couple years ago because he wanted to plant a church. I told him about our process, starting with the Discovery Center, and how we help people start churches.
When I asked where he wanted to plant, he mentioned the Madera Ranchos down by Freson. And I said, “Oh my goodness, one of our top planters and partners, Karl Roth, lives in the Madera Ranchos, he started a church there and I’m sure he would love to help you. I called Karl and he was all in. He had money and equipment and maybe people who could help. Could we get Ralph to the Discovery Center to start the process?
Ralph signed up several times to come to the Discovery Center, but he continually cancelled. He didn’t accept Karl’s multiple offers. He tried to start on his own and it has been a struggle.
Last month Ralph came through the Discovery Center. He talked about his frustration, how he needed help and money and equipment. I asked, “What’s your deal with Karl? Why haven’t you let him help you?”
He said, “Is Karl too good to be true? He can’t be that good. What is his angle?”
God’s goodness, especially when it flows through us looks too good to be true. When we let God’s Holy Spirit shine his good fruit through us, it doesn’t look like satisfactory. It looks too good to be true.
If you get God, you’ll get good.
How? This passage suggests several ways:
1. Belong
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. –Galatians 5:22-24 (NIV)
We have to make a choice to crucify the flesh with its passions and desires and choose God.
2. Live
Since we live by the Spirit… --Galatians 5:25 (NIV)
We make a choice to belong to God, then to live for God.
3. Follow
But if you are led by the Spirit… --Galatians 5:18 (NIV)
But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her. —Luke 10:42 (NKJV)
Mary chose to follow Jesus.
A couple weeks ago my son Jake, his two small girls, his mother-in-law, father-in-law, and grandmother-in-law were in Lahaina, Maui when the power went off. They had heard there was a fire in the area but were not too concerned. But Jake woke up early in the morning and noticed the power was still off. So, Jake did what anyone would do—he got in his rental car and drove TOWARD the fire. Jake asked the firefighters if he and his family should stay or should the go. They didn’t have a clear answer.
As Jake drove back to the hotel, his wife, Gionna called. She was sitting on a plane in San Diego getting ready to join the family on this Hawaiian vacation. Gionna was watching the weather reports and she insisted, “Please grab my kids, my parents and get out of there.”
Jake had a decision to make. Who would he follow? He packed up the family and took the Kahekili Highway back to the Maui airport. They got out just in time.
Jake said his wife did not save their lives; they probably would have survived. But she saved them from an incredible ordeal.
We get to choose who we follow—God or someone else?
4. Walk
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. –Galatians 5:16 (NIV)
Have ever driven that Kahekili Highway? It is also known as the “Highway of Death.” Lori and I drove that route a few years ago. After maneuvering through a particularly hazardous, slightly-less-than-one-lane cliff section, we stopped at a banana bread stand to catch our breath and lower our anxiety. We asked the banana bread dude, “How often do cars fall off the road down the cliff?” He nonchalantly replied, “At least once a week. Three crashed yesterday.”
Here is what happens when we walk with God: we often wreck. We fall off the path. We roll down the cliff, we mess. But then we climb back up, repent from our ways and start walking with God again. He lets us come back because God is good.
5. Step
let us keep in step with the Spirit… --Galatians 5:25 (NIV)
We want to get to the point where we are keeping in step with God. This is like dancing with God, only we have to let him lead.
When we allow God to lead His goodness flows through us in a way that is too good to be true.
Sometimes we miss God’s goodness, we don’t see it. Yet it is still there.
Paul says:
In all things God works for the good of those who love him…--Romans 8:28 (NIV)
And David admitted:
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life… --Psalm 23:6 (NKJV)
God’s goodness is running after you and me. Let’s receive it, and let it flow.