Is Being Good Worth It

Real kindness seeks no return; What return can the world make to rain clouds? -Thiruvalluvar

Is being good actually worth it? Are there awards at the end of each good deed? Do you get treated better or blessed more or have an easier path? These are things I assumed would happen when you were a good person. I believed good things would find you when you did the right thing. That you would be blessed when you walked the straight and narrow path. That you would find your way. Well let me tell you that all of this is not it.

I know you’re thinking, wait you’re supposed to be encouraging me. You’re supposed to be telling me to keep going, you’ve got this, just keep doing good things and you’ll get to a good ending. I will keep telling you to keep doing good things, but are you doing this with a good ending as the focus? Are you doing this to be obedient? Are you doing this for the right reason?

That’s the question you should really be asking. If not, then you’re doing it all wrong.

For years I thought, if I did good I will receive good. I was obedient so that things would be smooth. I listened so I wouldn’t have trouble, but trouble still found me. I still hit that bumpy path. That didn’t mean I didn’t do enough good things or maybe the ‘good ‘ thing I thought I was doing wasn’t actually good. It also didn’t mean that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don’t know how many times I would get upset and say the common phrase ‘why do bad things happen to good people’. But honestly, the truth was I was trying to avoid the bad or the wrong, and wanted to be blessed more and to be seen as a really good person.

Funny thing, you can be good and have your heart in the wrong place and not even realize it.

So let me ask you, what is your reason for doing good? Can you answer honestly? The correct answer would be because good is what is needed in this terrible world. So many bad things happen that good is needed to help to encourage, to lift up and to guide. As followers of Jesus, it’s our job to keep showing love to others. It’s our job to keep pushing no matter how hard it gets. Not so that we can be blessed in the end, but so that good will always remain in this world, because that is God’s will for our lives. This was never supposed to be about us or our lives.

It was supposed to be about them, and most importantly Him and His will. 

So it’s up to us to look for how our good things are affecting those around us and creating more of that ripple effect. Stop and feel the joy that is happening around you. Search for that smile or that love that’s trying to reach out for you. In the midst of something really hard, doing something good can help you and the other person. I know you are probably still wondering when your blessing is going to come. It will come, just don’t let it be your focus. Life was never promised to be good for us here but after we were done with our purpose. In 2 Timothy 4:6-8 (NIV) Paul says,

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

So is it worth it being good? Absolutely but not for the reason that you’re thinking. Be good to see good in others. Not for yourself. Rewards come naturally. However, be warned that if that’s what you’re looking for, then be prepared to be disappointed and to feel rejected. That’s not the plan. Look to His word, the Bible, to guide you on the path to more understanding of the reason. The reason being, so that we become more and more like Jesus.