8.7.23 - Matthew 19:16-17
How might you be on the lookout for the good in yourself and others today? What can you do to acknowledge what you experience?
Then someone came to him and said, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
We often want to know what tasks we must perform or requirements we must meet in order to receive desired rewards or outcomes.
Naturally, this thinking often guides our understanding of our relationship with God.
Jesus often doesn’t operate with such meritocratic thinking.
In a subtle, yet powerful reversal, which is just vintage Jesus, the Teacher responds to the question of what with a who: God is good. The access-key to eternal life is a good God, not our good works.
Yet the pursuit of righteousness– right relationships, integrity, and love, is the pathway to “enter into life” (Jesus omits eternal here) --the life of fullness and purpose God envisions for the world.
Many of us think of righteousness or good works as judgment-laden concepts–but how can you make space to find life in seeking what is good?
How might you be on the lookout for the good in yourself and others today? What can you do to acknowledge what you experience?
-- Evan Amo