CONTRACT WITH GOODNESS

Saint Teresa of Jesus said "Love is never idle, and a failure to grow would be a very bad sign." Even in stillness, love should be animated.

Incurable illness, severe disability, and grief can stunt love's growth. Bitterness can grip love in a stranglehold. We must not allow that to happen. Suffering is a high stakes business. It can either draw us closer to Christ or drive us away from him.

It's easier to succumb to bitterness and resentment than to search for purpose and meaning in our suffering—but search we must if anguish is to be a vehicle for good rather than evil in our lives. We can progress or regress in our pain. It's up to the sufferer. God gives us free will to search or reject Him.

I heard an agnostic refer to Christians as people who have a contract with goodness. Although his choice of phrasing is foreign to the typical parlance of Christians, it does have validity and a kernel of truth. I would alter the 'g' in goodness to a capital 'G'. Christians have a contract (the act of conversion) with Goodness (the source of all goodness, which is God). We are called to live that contract with Goodness regardless of the circumstances or evil in which we may find ourselves. Goodness exists regardless of what people do. 

Authentic and genuine human purpose and meaning must align with Goodness—or it is counterfeit. We do not define goodness, it simply exists independent of how humans respond to it. Goodness and love are closely aligned. In their purest context, they are born in the same place and come from the Author of both.

Goodness does not need to align with human definitions of goodness. Humans must align themselves to the definition of goodness as defined by Goodness. Goodness is never idle, and failure to seek Goodness and live out goodness is a very bad sign.

MDP