Why do the good?

I was riding in the back of a fire truck the other day and since the "padre" was riding with them the guys were jokingly going through a list of their colleagues, asking me if they would get to heaven. They started with some on the "dirty dozen" list, a group with a reputation for their dirty minds or their womanizing. (One list came out that some hard case had listed the chaplain as a reserve for the dirty dozen!!!... the deputy chief told me they only do such things to people they like??) They then went on to list the most argumentative types. I was trying to say that each of these guys is really a nice guy but they continued with this "heaven or hell" sheep drafting. I then commented that I think when we get "there" I suspect we will all be in for a surprise. I suggested that maybe heaven is not what we think it is and that maybe there is no heaven in the traditional way of thinking. It is strange that even people that do not darken the doors of a church assume there is some where "a better place" for them and their loved ones. One of the guys quoted John Lennon's song, "No heaven above us, below us only ground" or something like that. The guy next to me jokingly put his hand on my knee and said, "If that's the case we could 'get it on', there's nothing to stop us!" ... I remember a fundamentalist young man, who disagreed with what he called my "social 'do good' gospel" almost yelling at me... "You can't get to heaven with your good works! You know that don't you?" Then there's that sign on the buses in England that goes, "There probably is no God so stop worrying and enjoy life!"  The strange thing about these statements and conversations is that they assume that I am doing good things, or not doing bad things because I want to get to heaven and avoid hell. Heaven or hell are NOT, never have been, never will be my motivation for living the way I do!

The other thing that annoys me is the tendency for people to be critical or cynical about the motivations behind people that want to do good. I was talking to a woman this morning. It was really the end of a chaplaincy conversation that she had asked for. She asked me what I was going to do with the rest of my day off. I told her I was going to make shelves for the night shelter. She rolled her eyes and shook her head saying sarcastically, "As you do on your day off!" I had a supervisor who seemed to suggest that people who kept themselves busy "doing good" were running away from something. On the contrary, it maybe that they have found something!  My current supervisor tells me I am a perpetual "gap filler". She says I will keep doing things that others are not doing, where ever I see a gap I feel I have to fill it. Others suggest that I am not looking after myself or that somehow I have some sort of neurosis, or complex that drives me to "doing good".

I will admit that sometimes I grow weary of doing good as the good book warns against. Sometimes I know that I get close to "burn out" and very pressured.  But I would rather burn out doing significant things than rust out playing tiddly winks! Here are two reasons I live the way I do.

If someone could prove to me that there is no theistic God, I would still attempt to live the loving lifestyle. There are some things that are intrinsically "right" and "good" and "noble". Someone has borrowed my book, but Stephen Covey in his "7 Habits of successful people" in an appendix outlines his belief that there are basic eternal principles that we are called to live by. The current President of the U.S.A. says a similar thing. He highlights "... a belief that we are connected as people, that there are values that transcend race or culture that move us forward..."  I LOVE that "connected as people" statement - if we all lived by that recognition alone this world would be transformed! So I attempt to live lovingly and be a "do gooder" because I believe there are things and ways of life that are intrinsically "right". I guess these are part and parcel of my "God".

The second reason is very basic. I simply don't want to waste my time! Covey again suggests a way to sort out your values. He says imagine you are at your own funeral. Think of someone from your work, your family, your church or your community coming up to speak about you. What would you want them to be able to say about your life? I really don't care what people might say about me at my funeral. What I do care about is when I draw my last intelligent breath, as I look back on my life, how do I want to feel about it? What will I see then as a successful life? Will I have regrets? As I think about this I do not see any value in being able to say with that last breath statements like; "Well I made a lot of money!" or "Gee I enjoyed playing lots of golf!" or "I was good at renovating my houses!" or "I spoiled my kids and grandchildren rotten" or "I won lots of awards!"  or "I was a great All Black Rugby supporter." .... big woop!  None of these sorts of statements would enable me to go out of this world with a sense of peace and fulfillment. But if I can say as I depart, "That was hard work! There were incredible challenges and lots of questions, BUT I know that this world is a better place, a more peaceful, harmonious place, people have been helped along the journey of life etc... because David Brown passed this way. I know that in my living I have given expression to that essential connectedness we have with all people and with the environment." The other thing that I discover is true as a by-product of this style of living, is that Jesus words are true, "as you lose your life, you find it." It  essentially makes sense to me to not waste your life, muddle through life, drift through life but have your life motivated, given passion, and made meaningful by higher and deeper purposes. This it seems to me is true, whether or not there is a theistic God, or "heaven and hell."  Photo: The setting sun from an Adelaide Beach... chosen because the sun will set at the end of my "day" sometime and I want to say "I lived it well".