Fri Inspiration

Morning Inspiration with James Merritt

Goodness cannot exist in a vacuum, nor does it live in isolation. We measure people's goodness by how they treat others and how they respond in situations where one action is right and the other action wrong. Good people do what is right. John Wesley, the great preacher and founder of Methodism, said he lived by this one creed:

Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.

What a way to live! But why is it always important to do what is ethical and moral? Why is goodness the only thing you should go to bed with every night and wake up with every morning? For one thing, even though you see what you are like on the inside, the only you others see is on the outside.

Proverbs 20:11 says, "Even a child is known by his actions, by whether his conduct is pure and right."
In other words, talk is cheap. No matter how much you claim to be a good person, the only public measuring stick is your actions. You may think that by being good you're not doing a lot of good. But never underestimate the power of even one person to exert tremendous influence by simply doing the right thing at the right place at the right time.