Isn't it enough just to be nice? (Janet's Blog)

As I stood talking to our neighbor one hot, sunny afternoon as she floated casually in her above-ground pool, our friendly conversation turned to kids and church.

Being a non-church goer, my neighbor said, “I am just trying to raise my daughter to be a good person.”  The implication was that it should be enough. Her compelling statement has stuck with me for over 20 years.

At the time, my own developing faith was not yet mature and I did not know how to respond.  Of course raising one’s child to be a good person is a good thing. This much I knew—anything I might have said at the time would either sound like I was arguing against her, or giving her a lecture, so I didn’t say too much.  After all, I wanted to be nice.

But later, at home, I re-examined our conversation and her statement. I have gone back to it over the years.  It has continued to gnaw at me as I have contemplated why “just being a good person” is not enough.  I couldn’t articulate it very well at the time, but deep down I knew Christianity meant something more than just being a nice person.

Now don’t get me wrong, being a good person, is a wonderful thing. Someone who is kind, generous, thoughtful, honest, trustworthy and considerate is someone I want to be around.  We do, in fact, need more virtuous people in this world—Christian or not.

But, being a good person is not a substitute for faith. Our goodness seems to evolve from a set of core values.  However, simply being good and nice is not the pathway to heaven that Jesus showed us.  I don’t believe the whole reason Jesus suffered and died was to help us become nice people on earth.  There has to be more to it than that, don’t you think?

Maybe you have this all figured out, but if not, I encourage you to start your own quest for greater understanding about why there is more to life than just being nice.  Again, I am not advocating against niceness, but something greater!

You may want to start with baptism if you are looking at Christianity. I had a young student years ago that noted her friend that was not baptized was a very nice person.  This drew us into an exploration of, “What’s the point of baptism? Is its purpose just to make us good people?”

Wrestling with the big questions helps us on our journey to heaven, because our conclusions—guaranteed—will impact how we live each day on earth.

I would love to hear from you and welcome your comments.  If you like this column, please share it with a friend and be sure to subscribe.  (Always check your spam folder to be sure incoming columns do not get dropped there.)

God bless,

Janet Cassidy

Janetcassidy.com