Goodness as a Weapon!

In addition to the reflection I did on goodness yesterday, I ran across this from Graham Cooke:

“In every situation there is only one challenge facing you. It is the challenge of God’s goodness to overcome everything in you and around you. You are only being challenged by the goodness of God. No matter how difficult, how hard, you are being challenged by the goodness of God. Don’t put the blame on somebody else. God is saying to you, “The way into that person’s life is My goodness. The way to overcome here is My goodness. The way to maintain who you are in the Spirit is through goodness.”

You are only being challenged by the goodness of God!

But here’s the thing: When you meet a difficult person, God is challenging you to bring a higher measure of good into their life than the difficulty they are bringing into yours. He is saying, “See that person? Their difficulty level rating is seven out of ten in your life. I want your goodness rating to be eight out of ten at least. I want you to submerge their difficulty in My goodness. I want you to be at least as good for them as they are bad for you.”

But that’s just a tie. That’s no good! We want to win the championship. You don’t win the championship through tying every game. You want all the points. Yeah? You are in a fight! You should be in it to win it!”

As I read this, I was reminded of a story from the life of St. Theresa of Lisieux, from her own words in the book, "Story of a Soul". She used goodness to overcome the temptation to do evil towards someone who annoyed her in every way.  Here is the story in her own words in the late 1800's so the language is a bit antiquated, it has also been translated from French:

"A holy nun of our community annoyed me in all that she did; the devil must have had something to do with it, and he it was undoubtedly who made me see in her so many disagreeable points. I did not want to yield to my natural antipathy, for I remembered that charity ought to betray itself in deeds, and not exist merely in the feelings, so I set myself to do for this sister all I should do for the one I loved most. Every time I met her I prayed for her, and offered to God her virtues and merits. I felt that this was very pleasing to Our Lord, for there is no artist who is not gratified when his works are praised, and the Divine Artist of souls is pleased when we do not stop at the exterior, but, penetrating to the inner sanctuary He has chosen, admire its beauty." 

"I did not rest satisfied with praying for this Sister, who gave me such occasions for self-mastery, I tried to render her as many services as I could, and when tempted to answer her sharply, I made haste to smile and change the subject, for the Imitation says: “It is more profitable to leave everyone to his way of thinking than to give way to contentious discourses.” And sometimes when the temptation was very severe, I would run like a deserter from the battlefield if I could do so without letting the Sister guess my inward struggle." 

"One day she said to me with a beaming face: “My dear Soeur Thérèse, tell me what attraction you find in me, for whenever we meet, you greet me with such a sweet smile.” Ah! What attracted me was Jesus hidden in the depths of her soul— Jesus who maketh sweet even that which is most bitter."

Wow, what an awesome description of using goodness to win the battle against the enemy of God. Jesus speaks of something very similar in His teachings when he talks about loving our enemy.  Those have always been some of the most difficult verses to embrace, for it certainly goes against our natural inclinations. Here are several verses from Luke's Gospel - Luke 6:27-31,35-36 NIV:

[27] “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, [28] bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. [29] If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. [30] Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. [31] Do to others as you would have them do to you."

[35] "But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. [36] Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."

Oh, that we might fully embrace this in our lives.  That we might overcome evil with goodness!  That we might hold out to the world the mercy of God, living in and through us!  That we might embrace His goodness to such an extent that it just pours out of us in every direction!  Who knew the goodness of God could be such an effective weapon?  Let us be encouraged to choose goodness in every circumstance!

Amen!