Postcards and Fruit Cups: A Better Path to Goodness

Back to some sense of summer normalcy after a couple of whirlwind weeks away on various trips, I've started reading Matt Perman's book What's Best Next. This summer I've typically waited to write about what I've been reading until after a book is completely done, and the number of posts from me this summer reveals just how well that's been working. I've left at least ten posts in my head, waiting for a better time, a time that has never come. When I go back over my notes, the ideas from the author are still there; my thoughts in prose, however, are not. For this book, I intend to write as it comes to me. This is the first of several I see coming from this book.

The first idea that has struck me is that of planning to do good. Writes Perman:
The biblical call on our lives is not to do good randomly and haphazardly. Rather, God calls us to be proactive in doing good . . . We often think of doing good simply as something we are to do when it crosses our path. But Isaiah (32:8) shows us that we are also to take initiative to conceive, plan, and then execute endeavors for the good of others and the world.

While I'd like to think I'm someone who does good in this world, this passage makes it obvious that I am far from where I could be. For the good that I do most often is reactionary. It is in response to a need. If asked, I'm usually good for whatever favor is requested. Need help moving? Sure. An extra set of hands? No problem. Someone to listen or provide advice? I'm there. My wife asked me to water her tomatoes this morning. They're wet.

When I think about it, though, this pales in comparison to those like my wife who plan to do good and act before the need is in sight. She prepares and thinks of others before they ask. She writes postcards from home and sends them to friends and family, offering good cheer or support or encouragement without ever knowing if today is the day they'll need it. She cooks and bakes and cans so that she can readily offer caloric goodness at random. Craft projects are furtively tucked away in drawers, ready to entertain our children when the time calls for it. My freezer is full of a never-ending supply of fruit cups because she knows they are one of my favorite summer treats.

On the rare occasions when I do plan a good act prior to being asked, I often suffer from a lack of execution. There is still a card in my school bag that I meant to send to a friend in April. Letters and phone calls I've meant to get to just have not happened. Like so many blog ideas, good intentions and good ideas have gone to the graveyard via the "I'll Get to That Later" Expressway.

Being ready and willing when called upon is noble and good. Tragically, this type of people seems to be a dying breed, and I will continue to clutch tightly to the friends and family in my life on whom I can depend. However, there is a better goodness in all of us, a goodness that we plan ahead for.

It is not mighty acts of heroism in the face of adversity that we are each called to. Rather, it is simple acts of goodness, planned and executed, that will help us make our gospel-centered mark on the world.