It’s the Sunday before Amber and I go to Italy on Tuesday. For date night, we go to Beef & Boards. Who knew that watching The Little Mermaid would put me in a spiral on human nature. The reoccurring question in the show, “Are humans good?” What do you think? Are humans good?
My mind is currently full or rambling thoughts with no conclusions. Biblically, I know God created all (including humans) and declared it good. Paul, in Romans, reminds us that we are all sinners and have fallen short. Thus, is humanity good?
Back in Lassen Volcanic National Park we stayed at a Bed and Breakfast with a wonderful host. She was a delight, and a joy to spend time with. In one of our conversations, she said something odd to me. Talking about the continuous stream of people staying at her house, she describes all her guests has wonderful, good people. And its true, people are kind, funny, generous, and good. Then, she stated to me, “That’s why I don’t believe the news. It’s lies. How can it be true, all these bad things done by people. Everyone I meet is good.” She could not reconcile the evil, bad things, and threats that she hears about on the news with the kind individuals that she meets. On the flip side, President Trump in two separate interviews was asked about the shady, deceitful, and conniving things that other countries do. His response was something a kin to, “Do you think that the United States is any different? Do you think that we don’t do shady, deceitful, and conniving things in the name of national security?” In other words, it’s a shady world, everyone does it. Who is correct? Are humans good? All that we see on the news and hear about is overblown or the outlier. Or, are we sinners? The bad, the temptation, and the willingness to do harm is in us all. Could both be true?
I have met many wonderful people that may have said some nasty things as parents at a youth soccer game. One of Amber’s friends is the self-professed, least competitive person in the world. Her kids are highly involved in sports, but she is there for her kids and not at all for the competitive nature of sports. Her son was playing my nephew’s team from Evansville. During the game, she, for the first time ever, made a comment out loud about the game. Parents from the other team, my nephew’s team, told her to shut up. I jokingly asked her if it was my sister. Of course, she does not know the other teams’ parents or my sister. Maybe it was? I doubt it. However, kindness is not always how we treat each other on the sidelines of sporting events.
When all things are equal with nothing at stake in the matter or people are not threatened, they can be generous, kind, compassionate, helpful, and good. However, these same people can talk behind someone’s back, speak ugly, do hurtful things in the name of protection, personal gain, or simple gossip. I remember a professor in seminary saying that yes people have done a lot of bad things in the name of hate, but they have done even more bad things in the name of something they love, trying to protect, defend, or control. Are humans good?
People are good. I see it all the time in church, in neighbors, in friends, family, and even the stranger who is there in a time of need. People are good. It sometimes seems that power, greed, control, fear can take over these same good people causing surprising and hurtful things in our world. Yes, there may be some people that just hate, but that is probably rare (I hope so). However, when power, control, greed, fear take over who knows what someone is capable of.
Maybe this is why Christ is the way. In Philippians 2, Jesus is described as self-emptying himself, and we are called to have the same mindset as him. In the following of Christ and his nature, maybe we get back to the innate goodness that is within all of us.
This all began going on a date with Amber. You can feel sorry for her that her husband got all pensive on date night. Who knew that The Little Mermaid would put me into a theological spiral? Welcome to the continual spiral to humbleness.