Fruit of the Spirit - Goodness

We are in a series on the “Fruit of the Spirit,” and so far each fruit has looked captivating and desirable. I mean, what’s not to like? We’ve talked about Love. Who doesn’t want that? Joy. We’ll do almost anything for it. Peace. We are desperate for Peace. Patience. I’d like some of that yesterday. Most of us would love to be more kind. But this weekend, we are talking about Goodness—not just being good, but doing good. The problem is we’re ambivalent about goodness. Even the word “good” itself seems a little dull and lackluster. I was a little upset with the person who assigned the topics until I remembered that I was the one who assigned the topics. In our culture, the word “good” has lost its luster. How was the movie? It was good, not great. One of my favorite books is called “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. That title works because good is OK, but not as exciting as great. In fact, the opening line of that book says, “Good is the enemy of great.” I also think most of us are ambivalent about goodness. Sure, we’d all like to be good, but not if it will interfere with things like convenience or happiness. We want a little bit of goodness, but not too much. We’re like the guy that Jesus has a conversation with about goodness in Mark 10. He wanted to be good, but not if it was costly. So join us this weekend as we listen in on a conversation between Jesus and a young man that changes everything you thought you knew about goodness.