Kindred Sessions #2: Still Enough to Go Around

REVDOC #2

Still Enough to Go Around

There’s a thought that has crossed my mind several times now in the last few weeks. It’s not a new one, it’s an old one. Nearly a decade old, in fact.  

I went on a short-term mission trip to Guatemala in the fall of 2010, and part of my preparation for that trip was to read a book about common faith systems and cultural themes among Latin American people groups. (Easy enough!) I don’t remember what the book was. (Apparently, that is too hard.) I do remember it was short, astonishingly easy to read given the subject matter (either a really good or really bad sign), and had a lot of flags on it.  

The book described one people group, the Quiché of Guatemala, whose belief system is rooted in Christian and Mayan faith systems. They hold a belief I think we’d find particularly relatable: the concept of limited good. 

Limited good is the idea there is a fixed amount of good in the world.

While this can be applied to physical and environmental resources, which are often limited, it can also be applied circumstantially. If good things aren’t happening to you, you're getting evil instead -- and vice versa. Each of us can hope for a hearty helping of blessing, but -- at the end of the day -- if someone else's cup overflows, yours is going to run dry. 

Imagine for a moment the implications of this view. If you believe that there is only so much good to be had in this world, how does this affect the way you respond to your neighbor's new car? Your co-worker's promotion? Your brother's wife's cousin's cancer diagnosis? If this worldview has had its way in you, you are prone to think that the good in others’ lives is an enemy of your own. Their success stands as a reminder of what you are less likely to enjoy. The converse is perhaps more disturbing. If something bad happens to someone, maybe you find yourself breathing a twisted sigh of relief. There is now one less chance you’ll suffer a similar fate. You secretly celebrate -- party of one. 

I realize this sounds extreme and that -- for most of us -- this belief is likely, at most, subconscious. Your friendly neighborhood anthropologist (I’m sure they exist) might tell you this belief is more common in, for instance, traditional societies and honor-shame cultures; and it’s not as prevalent in Western, democratized cultures… But I think we know better. These roots run deeply in us -- and dousing them with the pesticides of concerted effort alone is not likely to deliver a death blow to this disease. 

These twisted roots bring rotten fruit to bear, and I think we’re tasting it now. I know, in my 36 years on this planet, I have not experienced a time like this -- one so distended with toxicity and vitriol. People with a lot more life experience than I say the same thing, so I don’t think I’m overreacting.  

How does limited good contribute to this environment?

In a few ways, I think. I see it in our attitude toward the 2020 presidential election; If one side prevails and enjoys a ‘good’ outcome, there is nothing left but despair and defeat for the other party. I see it in our disposition toward equity, too; if one group of people gets out from under the thumb of oppression, that thumb is going to fall on me instead. 

This way of thinking creates enemies where we should have friends, and causes us to hurl curses at people who deserve blessings. Last I checked, God did not condone that kind of thing. 

We need to get to the roots. If we believe the concept of limited good is the way God relates to us -- that his approach toward us is to create a scarcity of good and watch us fight for it -- we have some serious reframing to do. If we tell ourselves limited good is our story, we are ultimately saying to God, "Sorry, dude. You're kinda bad at the whole 'giving good gifts to your kids' thing and the ‘all things work together for good’ thing... And this whole ‘love one another’ thing, and oh! The ‘regard others as more important than yourself’ thing... it’s all for dummies." 

In God's economy, sometimes good looks like taking a loss.

Sometimes it looks like victory. Sometimes it looks like being proven wrong, or being vindicated. Sometimes good looks like suffering. Sometimes it looks like humbling yourself, letting go of your claim on being right and being the winner, and extending a hand across an aisle to work toward a cause that’s bigger than all parties involved. Sometimes it looks like giving your seat of power and influence, even if you worked toward it, to someone who has none, but deserves to be counted and heard. 

The truth is, there is no limited good because there is no limit to what God can make good.

Because of him, we are free to rejoice with others because their good is no longer the enemy of our own. We are free to glory in Jesus, who suffered the worst, in order to share his best with us -- and who makes us co-workers and co-re-creators of a kingdom where lions and lambs (and maybe republicans and democrats) will co-exist. 

There is still -- even in this apparent chaos -- enough good to go around.

-KB

Source: KB’s blog from March 2011