Knowing What IS the Good to Do
Posted by Bob Johnson on July 9, 2008
Last night after dinner Susan went to work planning her parents’ upcoming 60th wedding aniversary party. I did the dishes. It was not difficult in that case to determine what was the “good” I should do. But sometimes, it is not so easy knowing what is the “good” to do. For example, it may be difficult to determine what is the good we should do when it seems we must do a short term harm to bring about a long term good, as when a doctor administers painful chemotherapy to bring about a long term healing. I have a dear friend who is struggling to know what is the “good” to do in the case of her college daughter, who ended her first year of college on academic probation. A counselor is recommending letting the daughter take a year or two off from college. But if my friend does that, will she be able to get the daughter back in? Will such a short term solution, which seems painful, yield a long term good? Tough decision.
Another example of when it is difficult to determine what is the “good” we are to do is when doing good for one person may result in harm to another. I’ve been listening to a lecture series on tape about the Civil War. The professor read some letters from wives of Confederate soldiers begging their husbands to come home because their families were starving. One wife wrote, to the effect, “if you don’t come now, me and the children will all be dead when you get here for want of food.” What’s the right thing to do? Desert your comrades in arms to care for your family? Or allow the hardship on your family and fight on with your comrades in arms? What is “doing good” in that situation?
The “good” in some situations is not always easy to find. Sometimes we have to be content searching for the greater good or the lesser evil. But I believe it comes back to intent, our desire to please God out of the overflow of love in our hearts. We will make mistakes in such situations determining the “good.” But in terms of “going on to perfection,” we cannot go wrong if we make our decisions with a desire to honor God, which is vastly different than making a decision based simply on what “feels good” or which will advantage us personally.
