“You must have a genius for charity as well as for anything else.  As for doing good; that is one of the professions which is full. Moreover I have tried it fairly and, strange as it may seem, am satisfied that it does not agree with my constitution.”  Henry David Thoreau

Last November I had to read Walden by Henry David Thoreau for my literature class.  Thoreau is one of the great American transcendentalist authors along with Ralph Waldo Emerson, who sort of mentored him.  Both of these authors are rather hard to read and while I agree with some of their beliefs, they also hold many that are a little out there in my opinion and not very easily grasped without fuller thought and time than I had to give in class.

Thoreau’s thoughts about goodness, or doing good, grabbed my attention though.  In addition to the quote above, he also wrote the following.

“What good I do, in the common sense of that word, must be aside from my main path, and for the most part wholly unintended. Men say, practically, Begin where you are and such as you are, without aiming mainly to become of more worth, and with kindness aforethought go about doing good. If I were to preach at all in this strain, I should say rather, Set about being good…A man is not a good man to me because he will feed me if I should be starving, or warm me if I should be freezing, or pull me out of a ditch if I should ever fall into one. I can find you a Newfoundland dog that will do as much. Philanthropy is not love for one’s fellow-man in the broadest sense.”

Thoreau’s beliefs about doing good can be summarized as: first, there are plenty of people doing good so it is not for everyone; second, it was definitely not for him personally; third, “being” good is valued and is not the same as “doing” good; and finally, altruistic giving of oneself will not make one a good person.  My professor led a discussion on this passage in which she and some of the others in class agreed and defended Thoreau’s position.  They all seemed to believe that one can be a good person without consciously, decidedly, doing good and that if you had to make yourself do good then you were not really a good person and the very act of making yourself do good negated the goodness of the act.  In other words, we just need to be the best possible people we can be and that will be good enough.

I disagreed then and now.  I told my professor and the class that we are not automatically good people and that we must practice being good by always attempting to consciously do good.  And whether we have to think about doing good or not, good is still good.  All people are called to love one another and true love is shown in the very acts that Thoreau seemed to disdain.  One of my questions is; how does not doing good make it possible to ever be considered good?  I actually believe that Thoreau and others who believe this way are really just attempting to belittle the people of faith who sometimes do reach out with good works but with wrong motivations.

“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness…” 2 Peter 1:5

Our instructions are clear.  We are to add to our faith goodness.  How do we do that?  What is goodness?

I believe goodness is Godliness.  I believe good is of God even when those doing good may not even believe in a god.  There are people in the world doing a lot of good with their philanthropic and charitable acts who would never darken the doorsteps of a church with their shadow.  There are many people of faith doing the same.  There are also people of faith who do not do much but complain about those that are doing good but who do not believe the same way they do.  I have heard Christians knock some of Rick Warren’s charitable actions in the recent past because he has welcomed the help of some outside our faith.  That is ridiculous.  Let anyone that wants to do good do it.  We need to applaud their efforts and help anyone doing good that we can.  I have been vocal about my own thoughts concerning some of Warrens theology and his testimony, but never about his charity.

We all, especially the community of faith, must add to our faith the goodness of God and the only way we can do that is to start doing good in any and every way we can.  While worship, praise, reading your bible and supporting a church are right and proper, they do not come close to doing what we are supposed to be doing which is to love people.  To love people is to do for people.  Peter told us to add seven virtues to our faith: goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, love.  I believe that to grow in Christ-likeness we must do this and we must do it in the order prescribed.  As a follower of Jesus we have to begin by doing good, even before a quest for knowledge.  By working on these virtues in order we can ultimately serve the Kingdom in mighty ways.

Thoreau was satisfied that doing good was not agreeable to his constitution.  I believe a lot of us are pretty satisfied with this attitude also.  Jesus was not.  Are you?

Love you all

Tags: Belief, Christ, Christians, God, Good, Kingdom, Knowledge, Love, Testimony, Theology, Work