Misguided Effort? 4

In the secular study of the means of good and helping actions, they are explained as something that is ultimately self serving (we do good things because it makes us look or feel good) or genetically programmed through evolutionary mechanisms (it leads to greater chances of survival if we care for those in our tribe). In this view, helping the other is not the primary purpose. It seems clear that these ordinary means are often at work in good and helping actions. Good things do happen as a result of these ordinary means. God knows there are worse expressions of selfishness. I will take someone being helped for selfish motives over someone supporting the sex slave industry to support their own perverse, selfish desires. Make no mistake about it, acts of love and mercy secondary to some other self-serving purpose are good, desirable, and should be encouraged and celebrated when we see them. They provide striking contrasts to the acts of cruelty and hatred we encounter and refreshing relief from the more banal, seemingly ubiquitous acts of selfish complacency.


Good and helping actions arising from some other, primary purpose certainly is on the good side of the good-evil continuum. Even Jesus took it when he found it (Luke 9:49-50; ht Greg). In my life, it was progress for me just to do good things, even when my motives were less than selfless. When we first started building beds, it was enough just to get to the point where I was willing to give a bed away, even though compassion was not the driving force. Without taking anything away from these ordinary acts of goodness, from a spiritual formation standpoint, however, are we to be satisfied with such ordinary acts of goodness? Is there something more that we can expect and aspire to if we are on a journey to live the way of Jesus? Is there such a thing as exceptional goodness?