I used to think we were all good at the core. And then life happened and I started believing that we were actually all evil at the core. But today, a friend of mine and I were chatting and this topic came up. I told her that I had decided that we were all evil at the core. Interestingly enough, she agreed and disagreed with me on that one.
This is the verdict: At the innermost core, we are good, because we were made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), and afterward, He commented that all He had made was very good (Genesis 1:31).
But the problem is that we have let sin into our lives, into our being. We were cursed (Genesis 3:14) so now there is a layer of evil above the good core.
This is interesting to me because it was much easier for me to believe that we were all evil. This gave an excuse for me to not do good, as it was my "true self" anyway. This made it also easier for me to deal with people who hurt me, as I didn't have to try at our relationship and try to make things right with them. It would have been just easier to let them go, thinking that they were bad anyway so there's not much to it. So in reality, it was actually really wrong of me to think that people were evil at the core. Seriously messed up.
Knowing and believing that people are actually good at the core makes things difficult. It seems like some people have a thicker layer of evil before you can dig to the good, and digging requires effort and care. I can't say that I don't have my own layer of evil, but that doesn't mean I can't try to make it thinner.
Sigh. Now that I have revisited the question about the core, I now have to put in the effort and hope that I will be able to dig through in my relationships with others to be able to get a glimpse of that innermost, good core.
A friend told another friend something along the lines of this: If we were made in God's image, then we can get to know more about God through getting to know more people's cores.
What a thought to ponder.
This is the verdict: At the innermost core, we are good, because we were made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), and afterward, He commented that all He had made was very good (Genesis 1:31).
But the problem is that we have let sin into our lives, into our being. We were cursed (Genesis 3:14) so now there is a layer of evil above the good core.
This is interesting to me because it was much easier for me to believe that we were all evil. This gave an excuse for me to not do good, as it was my "true self" anyway. This made it also easier for me to deal with people who hurt me, as I didn't have to try at our relationship and try to make things right with them. It would have been just easier to let them go, thinking that they were bad anyway so there's not much to it. So in reality, it was actually really wrong of me to think that people were evil at the core. Seriously messed up.
Knowing and believing that people are actually good at the core makes things difficult. It seems like some people have a thicker layer of evil before you can dig to the good, and digging requires effort and care. I can't say that I don't have my own layer of evil, but that doesn't mean I can't try to make it thinner.
Sigh. Now that I have revisited the question about the core, I now have to put in the effort and hope that I will be able to dig through in my relationships with others to be able to get a glimpse of that innermost, good core.
A friend told another friend something along the lines of this: If we were made in God's image, then we can get to know more about God through getting to know more people's cores.
What a thought to ponder.
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