Principle: Auto Goodness Syndrome
July 30, 2013 2 Comments
“We must not get tired of doing good. We will receive our harvest of eternal life at the right time. We must not give up. When we have the opportunity to do good to anyone, we should do it. But we should give special attention to those who are in the family of believers.” Galatians 6:9, 10 ERV
“Goodness-that which is pleasing, valuable or useful; moral excellence or admirableness”
Is being a “good person” a natural thing? Are we born with goodness? Can we develop goodness in our heart? I am an angry person, do I have the chance of changing my attitude? I’m always sensitive to mistreatment, can I respond with goodness at all times no matter how deep is the mistreatment? Where is the demarcation line between good and bad? Who define the rules of goodness? Where are the standards of goodness? What will I get if I do good things?
A few years back, I was annoyed by a coworker who was always responding my statements with contempt or lack of respect. I will go in silence for weeks with the person and I would pray and intercede and ask God to show me why this guy is bothering me every time I have the chance of working side by side with him. Then again, the same treatment comes out from him. I spent many years in Aikido training and know a lot of things about fighting and defending myself. I’ve also been indoctrinated in the military having served in US Army for 4 years and had a chance of living closely with all types of personalities. So in me, there is a mixture of different flavors of good and bad. I can only count with my fingers the times that I’ve confronted a person head on. Normally, I will shrug off their names in my list of friends and move on. But this person was different. So being with my bad side (even though I was already a born again Christian), I choose to fight in words. I moved my face close to him and stared at his eyes and told him that I am ready to fight. He was confused when he heard me say those words. He was not expecting it, He was speechless and unable to move. When I say those words, I was ready to defend myself for a physical confrontation. Of course I did not make a violent move. But a strange thing happened after i said that, this person melted right in front of me. The next thing I said to him was “you need to rewire your brain” (this is before I’ve read the book “Rewire Your Brain”). Fast forward an hour later, I end up knowing all his life story. He told me about his on going relationship troubles, child custody battle and his new girlfriend giving him a hard time. In the end, I became a listener to him and understood that he just wanted my attention and conversation and really do not want to fight against me. He was like a little child poking at me just to get my attention “hey, I’m annoying you so that I can be friends with you”. Many of our adversaries are just like that – they wanted our attention so badly that they will do anything to get it.
I know that sometimes I can be a bad guy but majority of the times, I’m in the good side or at least I’m trying to. It takes discipline to be good and a lot of mercy from God. I choose to be good. It is a conscious decision every waking hours.
There are benefits of being a good person. I don’t need to list those things here because I am sure that you already know what I’m talking about.
I do hope that you too will exercise the courage in doing good things to other people. Maybe one day we can change the way this world behaves.
See it at YouVersion.com:
i had the same experience but i ‘d never talk to him like a fighter, i just don’t mind him.:)
Not minding or silence is always the best response. I took a different approach because I was curious why of all the people I’ve worked with,, this is the only one that has a grudge on me.