Seeking Goodness
May 15, 2024
Before I moved to Dallas, I practiced a rhythm of traveling an hour and fifteen minutes to a small town in Southern California. I started the morning at a café of succulent art, enjoying a cappuccino amidst a botanical beauty. Then I walked through the quaint, artistic downtown to a center where I had sandwich and an artisan latte on a second-floor balcony, overlooking a green courtyard where I often saw children playing and teenagers reading their Bibles while a street musician sang praise music.
Afterwards, I went downstairs to a local gallery. I sat on a bench perfectly placed for contemplation in front of a wall of inspiring art. Lastly, I strolled a few blocks to the beach. I sat on a bench located on a terrace looking out to the waters before I walked on the shore, talking to God along a glimmering, sunlit sea. This was a taste of goodness.
I think we seek goodness. Existing and surviving is not enough. Our souls yearn for goodness. King David, facing a context of animosity, focused on whom God is and set his sight, “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” (Psa. 27:13 ESV) Goodness does not yield a state of death, decay, and destitution. Goodness yields life – true, abundant life. The question is understanding what produces goodness and how to achieve it.
Goodness bears wholeness, harmony, peace (shalom), and beauty. If the opposite conditions were true – destructiveness and fragmentation, disharmony and imbalance, anxiety and terror, ugliness and dreadfulness – there could not be goodness. In the end, goodness equates to flourishing.
Goodness is brought about by God’s love and providence, even in strained and difficult times. His benevolence, grace, and mercy produce goodness. Goodness is brought about by justice and morality. God’s laws and commandments preserve goodness, in the same way that a structured routine for a child nurtures a healthy mind and spirit. Morality protects and fosters goodness. Goodness is brought about by hope and vision for the future, not despair for tomorrow. Goodness is brought about by purpose and meaningfulness, emptiness and vanity.
When David faced his challenges, he oriented himself toward a goodness from God that produces flourishing. This is the narrative he aligns with and the direction he heads towards, not destruction but flourishing.
As artists, accountants, engineers, teachers, and parents, we are called to participate in a narrative of goodness by embracing a perspective of it with faith and by producing it in our pursuits and daily lives. To be beauty-makers and truth-seekers in the world is to be goodness-producers. Do we contribute to goodness or cause the opposite? Do we live in congruence with goodness?
Luminary Warrior 