Jonathots Daily Blog
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18 years of age.
G-Pop’s granddaughter is celebrating today.
She is so excited. She has waited a lifetime for it–at least, her lifetime.
She is ready to be a person instead of a passenger.
A participant rather than a daughter.
A mover and not just a child.
G-Pop could share many superlatives about this young woman and bore you to tears.
She is intelligent to the point of being sharp.
She is clever and creative.
She is tender-hearted and allows tears to flow without shame.
Even though her life has been peppered with missteps, she went back, corrected them and took responsibility for the stumbles.
She is talented, she can sing, and dear Lord, she even plays the ukulele.
The canvas set before her is prepared for the beautiful colorations of her dreams.
But she is still plagued by one concern:
She doesn’t want to miss anything.
She doesn’t want to be considered an “also ran.”
She does not want people to believe she’s just a preacher’s daughter who cushioned herself from the realities of human life.
She wants to do it all.
She is frightened of becoming a “goody-two-shoes.”
It is a sensation that jolts the heart of every person who dares to pursue goodness. Can you chase the star of purity and still enjoy the cosmic journey?
But here’s the reality: nothing bad ever made anything good.
No vice ever actually promoted a versa.
No inhalation stimulated respiration.
No liquid spirit ever conjured a Holy Spirit.
Side-tracks. That’s what all those are–little temptations to distraction that we’ve convinced ourselves are necessary to add to our diary to make our lives seem plausible instead of merely a fairy tale.
What G-Pop would like to tell his granddaughter on this glorious day is that good is the only thing worth living for.
But you must never preach it.
Preaching good always leads to self-righteousness, selfishness and anger over missing out over some sort of sinful delicacy.
The more the reverend reverberates against iniquity, the more he is drawn to it. It is a historical fact.
God never gave us permission to preach good–thus the warning, “Don’t judge other people.”
G-Pop would also tell his granddaughter that being good is the curse of a thousand yearnings.
None of us are good. No, not one.
So every time we try to be good, we punish ourselves, incriminate our hearts and tear down our confidence. It’s why the phrase, “I’m sorry” needs to be at our tongue-tip, prepared to be uttered at any moment.
We’re just not good.
And those who try to be good often end up either lying or preaching. (I’m not sure if there’s a difference there.)
What G-Pop wants to wish to his beautiful, creative, gentle, comical granddaughter is the mission of doing good.
Good becomes very obvious because it’s always the thing that includes somebody besides yourself. It’s not hard to find–and even though you’re not going to preach against evil nor claim to be pure, the least you can do for a battered, bewildered and betrayed mankind is grant them the touch of grace brought by a moment of goodness.
I’m always enamored by the story that comes out of the 1969 music festival, Woodstock. Even though all the parents were critical of their young ones who went off to this “den of iniquity”–and perhaps there was a farm-load of sin being perpetuated in every field–when it was discovered that the purple acid was hurting people, they interrupted the concert and got on the microphone to warn their brothers and sisters to stay away from it.
They did good.
I suppose some pious parents might suggest that if the children were not taking acid in the first place, there would be no reason to avoid the purple.
But you see, that’s not life.
Life is realizing that wherever you are, whoever you’re working with, and whatever the rules for that environment, there is still a way to do good.
It does not make you a goody-two-shoes.
It means that you walk with feet of blessing.
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