Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good?
No one is good but God alone.”
—Mark 10.18
And also, everyone is good;
no one is any more so than another.
Why do we judge? Why must we rank
and compare and, inevitably, compete?
Everyone is a mix of “good” and “bad”—
and none of our judgments is real.
Yes, there is evil, and there are hurtful actions,
and none of us is entirely free of them.
And there is grace and goodness in all of us,
hidden even in the cruelest tyrant.
But our judgments are mixed,
clouded by our not-goodness;
the sinful fruit of the Tree was not knowing good and evil
but thinking we do.
Resist evil actions, and strive for goodness,
but know our discernment is never pure.
Act with kindness toward all;
and goodness will prevail.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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