You Good?

When I am looking crazy, with furrowed brows or twisted lips, people who love me might ask me this simple question: You Good? What they want to know is how I'm doing. They are asking what's bothering me. They sense that I am not myself.

When we taste the cooking of a grandma or aunt who seasons with love, our response? This is so good! When our spouse steps their game up a bit on date night we might say to them: Lookin good! When a child does something spectacular, we say to them: Good job or You did good! When a puppy behaves the way we expect, we reward them with a treat, a pat on the head, and a "good boy or good girl". With so many uses for one word, what does it really mean?

Goodness from the spiritual perspective means to act with righteous intent. It is a verb, not a noun or an adjective. It is an expectation of God for those who believe in Him. To be good means to have a genuine desire to live a righteous life. Now, the key word here is desire. Goodness is born from the inner-dwelling of God in us through the Spirit. That being said, what we want starts to change. How we behave starts to change. Although that doesn't indicate perfection by any means, the dominance in our hearts and our actions is goodness because we are growing closer and closer to God each day.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father....-James 1:17
Goodness manifests itself a few ways. First, when we are changed in our hearts, we start to actually be good, to experience goodness. Beginning to bear the fruit of goodness, we experience a shift from the inside out. That means that we start to feel different. We start to see the world through a different lens. After our hearts change, we start to see our behavior change.

By his good conduct let him show his works...-James 3:13
Goodness will have us acting differently. As the old folks say, goodness will get us some "act right". How we handle situations shifts because our mindset and heart's desires have become more righteous. We will start to see how the goodness of God starts to grow and harvest in our lives through the way we behave. We will carry ourselves differently and hold ourselves to a different standard.

So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone... -Galatians 6:10 
Finally, goodness will change our relationships. We will surprise ourselves by not cursing someone out or punching them in the face, when previous behaviors indicate that as our normal reaction. Others will start to question us like, "You gone let them...?" or "Why you acting all...?" Meanwhile, we don't even have the desire to react the way we used to. Why? Because we are good.

To desire, behave and interact with goodness is not constant. I mean, let's be honest. There will be times that our humanness causes us to act and react with NOTHING good. It's human nature. We slip up and react in the flesh. It's bound to happen every now and then. This is why it's important to grow as close to God as we can with each passing day. That way, more of what we think, say, and do is good. Even though we are bound to have those "not-so-good" moments, our new normal makes those times seem out of character. People who love us in Christ will remind us about how far we've come. They might raise a brow, grab our hand, or just give us the look, but not without asking us, "You good?"

The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good...-Mathew 12:15 
Today, I challenge you to try your hand at goodness. I pray that God begin to plant those seeds into our hearts so that we may, in due season, bear bountiful fruits of goodness. I pray that when our fruit falls from the tree and we show another side, that God would bless us with people to remind us how much of our good fruit still remains. Be good. Be Blessed. XOXO