We’re more good than bad

"I would like to be perfect, but I know that I’m not perfect. Sometimes I am weak and thoughtless. But look; sometimes I can be strong and generous and self-disciplined as well. I am not a bad person. I am a person who often does bad things, but more often does good things. And if that’s good enough for God, it should be good enough for me." — Harold S. Kushner, How Good Do We Have to Be

Some people find fault as if there were a prize for it.

Nothing is ever good enough for them. 

A man, well in his 30s, walked by, and I overheard a person retell this young man’s faults from his teenage years. I shook my head. Surely this young man had done something to redeem himself in 15 years. Indeed, I knew he had done wonderful things, but that didn’t matter to these folks. 

• Only the past mattered. 

• Only the imperfections mattered. 

• Only the mistakes mattered.

Heaven help us if our life’s worth is forever judged by our impatient, exuberate youth or by the times we let the excitement of a moment lead to a foolish act.

A friend once told another friend that the hardships in life I was facing at that time were “justly deserved.” (With friends like that, eh?)

I will never be good enough for some, and that’s okay. Like Harold Kushner, I, too, know that “I am a person who often does bad things, but more often does good things.”

I would venture to say, that fits us all — more good than bad.