Good?
"Why do you call me good?" - Jesus, from the 10th chapter of the Gospel of Mark
I caught myself today saying of an acquaintance, "He seems like a good man", and I was reminded of the above verse. Who or what can actually be good?
As my understanding of theology goes, goodness finds it's very definition and context in who God is. As such, there are many things that we call "good" which are easily dismissed (like Apatow films and Krispy Kreme donuts). But there are a slew of things which through discernment can seem good though lack anchorage in God. Philosophy can tell us that endings are good because they add meaning to life, or that evolution is good because it brings out potential that would otherwise lay dormant. These are arbitrary examples, but they happen to be the first 2 that come to mind, so I'll assume significance.
I must admit that, in the past, I would have subscribed to the notion that these latter things were in fact good, but now that I think about it, neither of them seem fully applicable. God does not end, nor does He change, and if these actions are not found in Him, then how can they be labeled as Him?
There is good and bad. Truth is not partial to the postmodern world of solid grey. That being said, perhaps there are things that point to goodness without being good in and of themselves, such as death and change. Through the knowledge of death we are forced to decide how to live our lives (hopefully toward reliance and goodness), and these steps can only be taken through the conduit of change.
"Only God is good", so anything that actually is good (whether we call it as it is or not) must be a part of His divine image. So I'm left to conclude that there are things which are bad, things which are good, and things which can lead to goodness, and these last things can be any combination of the former things.
One of the greatest things that God can do for us is enable us to see clearly enough to distinguish what is good. Then (and only then) will we see Him for who He really is: good.