Goodness

What does it truly mean to be good? Not good by the world's standards, which often come with fine print and social conditions, but genuinely, deeply good in the way that transforms lives and reflects something beyond ourselves. This message takes us into the heart of that question through the story in Mark 10, where a man who has done everything right by every outward measure still walks away empty. The encounter is a mirror for all of us. We see in it the tension between what we accomplish on our own and what only God can produce in us. The central insight is both humbling and liberating: true goodness is not a personal achievement. It is the fruit of the Holy Spirit at work within us. When Jesus tells the rich young man that only God is good, He is drawing a clear line between human effort and divine character. That line is not meant to discourage us but to redirect us, pointing us away from self-reliance and toward surrender. As we explore the Psalms and the vine-and-branches passage in John 15, we discover that goodness flows from a relationship, one where we remain connected to the source of all that is truly good. The question this raises for our own lives is worth sitting with: are we drawing from that source, or are we trying to manufacture goodness on our own terms?