Resonance

Category: Care

  • Can Goodness Be Taken Advantage of?

    Can Goodness Be Taken Advantage of?

    But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
    Galatians 5:22 NKJV

    Goodness cannot be taken advantage of. What people take advantage of is insecurities. When you are insecure about doing good to others, you basically care about your public image, the show you’re putting up, how people will see you and praise you, how you can use your goodness now for a favor later. True goodness is not ignorant or blind. People take advantage of whatever that is ignorant and blind. True goodness understands the situation, sees the need, has the resources and is willing to help.

    True goodness is not forced or coerced. True goodness is a decision to help when you are willing and able. True goodness is not to the benefit of others and a detriment to yourself. That is a dualistic thinking. Not every situation is dualistic. Giving someone an advantage does not necessarily put you at a disadvantage. Your parents spending huge sums of money on you is not to their disadvantage.

    Sacrifice is not detrimental, how much more goodness. Don’t be shortsighted. Look at the big picture. Yes! Sacrifice is costly. But we choose the value we place on anything, including ourselves. If it’s worth it, it’s worth sacrificing for. If we don’t learn to prioritise what really matters in the long run and sacrifice for it, we would hold on to everything there is and eventually lose everything. Laying down your life for someone is not necessarily killing yourself. Every parent understands this perfectly.

    Goodness is not only giving what we have materially. Sometimes all the other person needs is not the amount of money they are asking from you and will be unable to pay. Sometimes they just need the peace of mind you’re not willing to give away. That will mean not giving them what they think they need in the short term but what you know would be beneficial in the long term

    Goodness from time immemorial has been a coverup for a hidden motive or evil deeds that need not be seen. That is the kind of goodness that can be taken advantage of. Why? Because such a goodness has to be put up to cover up. There are top businesses in the world that grant auditors huge sums of money to shut up concerning their fraudulent transactions.

    When you’re insecure about goodness, you do good out of convenience and pity. Perhaps, it’s your way of putting people under you. Or a sure way to avoid controversy. Or even a way of pleasing the public eye. Insecure goodness can be blackmailed. Anyone can do good. Even some serial killers in history have donated parts of the bodies of their victims for the good of science. But truly doing good emanates from being truly good.

    It is absurd to think goodness can be abused. Can you abuse your mom’s love for you? Can you abuse the sun’s energy? Can you abuse the oxygen you breathe? Can you abuse the grace of God? Certainly not! Whatever goodness we abuse affects us more than the source of goodness. If you have a friend who is willing to support you no matter what, and you think you can abuse them and you indeed do, you lose their trust but they never lose their kindness. Think about it.

    Sometimes I wonder if Mother Theresa would have remained Mother Theresa in this system of ours. I believe she would. In fact, there are more people with her heart now than ever before. Don’t let the system fool you. Those who linger close to the top and abuse whatever goodness there is never make it for long. Everyone at the top is a philanthropist. Whoever wants to make it to the top must have the mindset of giving back to society.

    There is a kind of goodness that emanates from empathy and compassion. It causes us to do good because we ARE good. We are the epitome of goodness when the reason for our goodness is because we have seen a need that we can address. True goodness is a response to the call of the universe to address the needs of our fellow selves. True goodness does not take advantage of. True goodness gives advantage to.

    So, don’t stop doing good because people did you bad. Do good because you are good. The world has been changed and will change a thousand times by the littlest of goodness shown. Think about all the people and works that came to stay throughout history from the first civilisation to date. Don’t fear your goodness will be taken advantage of. Be glad that you’re the vessel being used to make a positive impact in the lives of the people around you.

    I love you ❤

  • Was Jesus’ Death An Afterthought?

    Was Jesus’ Death An Afterthought?

    Once upon a time, there lived Adam and Eve in a beautiful fragrant Garden called Eden. Heaven on Earth. Then a serpent came by, and the rest was history. Man has fallen. Sin has entered into the heart of man. What will God do now? Wait thousands of years after to die on the Cross?

    The Gospel is not that man fell and rose up again. The Gospel is that man mystically rose up even before He fell. For many generations, Evangelism has been approached from the Western view popularised by St. Augustine. To start from the fall of man and end at the Cross is not exactly wrong per se. It just doesnt tell the whole story. The Gospel is meant to make us happy, to make us laugh. It’s the Good News!

    Why? Because it is the foolishness of God which insults every known wisdom of man. Using the Western view lens brings up questions like why did God allow Adam to sin? The Gospel is that man’s sins were paid for even before He sinned. And that was a better way of dealing with sin than stopping man from sinning.

    The Gospel is a constant mockery of Sin, Death, Hell, Evil and the Grave. Because they thought they had the upper hand from day 1. But even before the foundations of the world..hallelujah!..God had everything under control. Psalm 2 is very prophetic. The kings of the earth talked about was Death, Evil and the Grave.

    When they gathered for battle and thought they had won the possessions of the earth and overthrown God’s sovereignty, God was simply laughing uncontrollably at them in mockery at their futile efforts.

    The Greek word for care is ” melo “. It means anticipating a person’s need and meeting it right now. When you care about someone, you anticipate a need tomorrow and meet it today.

    Was His Death on the Cross an afterthought? No. Because that is not caring. His death was foreknown and predestined.

    When God created man, He anticipated the fall of man, thus the lamb was slained before the foundations of the world. Hallelujah! Before you got into that situation, God had already made your way of escape (1 Cor 10:13).

    In Romans 3:25‭-‬26, Paul talks about why God overlooked the sins of the people in the Old Testament. Because they were all mystically included in the Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ.
    The likes of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, Isaiah, the nation of Israel, you name it.

    Jesus paid for our sins even before Adam knew how to sin. This is why the Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Christ is called the Gospel, the Good News. The Gospel is that the lamb was slained before the foundations of the world, before man fell from glory. And with this knowledge, I can also emphatically laugh in ecstatic glory in tantalisation reaction to sin, death and the grave.

    “Now death, where is your sting?” hahaha

    I love you ❤