Goodness

So I'm College Student, and being in college has been a crazy time. Tons of knowledge, has just been thrown in my face the last couple of years. So many good ideas have been planted where once, I can honestly say there wasn't much, maybe....maybe...even nothing. It's crazy how much a person can take in and learn. How fast these ideas come, grow and go. The way just one good idea can grab hold of someone, impassion them, push them, excite them. An abundance of growth.

I just became an Uncle nearly a year ago. My Brother and his wife had a beautiful baby boy. Right now he seems to be the most important person in our family, and honestly he deserves it. He's crazy, he's so blank, empty, ready to absorb, and learn, theres just nothingness there waiting to be filled with very goodness. Anyway, because of my association with my nephew (Favorite Uncle) I often get opportunities to hang out and play with him. Its amazing to watch him play. You can see his learning in his eyes. The other day we were playing with wooden blocks, and I kept stacking um up. He'd knock them down. As I sat there re-stacking blocks, I'd look at him and repeat "block, block, block" and he's eyes would just light. He sat there, watching my mouth, analyzing every movement, thinking.

I could tell he was getting it.

It was like that moment when you could tell he looked at something and just knew what it was..."block, block." It wasn't enough for him though, he started staring at me, and trying to say it back....it was so cute. All he could get out was the "ck" sound. I don't think he quite got the tongue movement, so its was "chk", "chk", "chk." The idea was growing.

It had to grow, its not good enough for it to be left alone. Its gotta go, its gotta grow. One good idea, just going. The identification wasn't enough, he had to say it, he had to build with it, he had to play with it, he had to do the best ever possible with it.

It had to be excellent. There was no saying no to it.

We Play this game with him. We were all amazed at how fast he was growing from the time he was born. We'd grab both his hands, and hold them way up in the air. Always saying "How big is Aidan"..."SO BIG!" Now that he's older, the idea has grown. We've taught him that its good, it makes him laugh. We look at him, say "Aidian?" "How big are you?" Immediately the hands go up and he smiles, and giggles. He knows, he learned something. Were once nothing was, something is. Its amazing. And he knows he can't let it be, he has to respond to the idea. "How big are you?" Its a call, he has to raise his hands, he knows its right, and it gets more right, and greater every time he does it. That one good idea, that one seed falling down and just shooting up, all the way to the top. Its a burning, something has to be done, a choice has to be made.

He can't just be satisfied with sitting, He see's us move, he has to crawl, and crawling isn't enough he see's us walking, he has to walk. That one good idea just going, going, and gone. He has to follow it, it calls him out, it makes him more perfect, more right, more good. It burns at him to be better.

Being in college I know just how he feels. I've got this burning in me too. I can't handle just being an average engineer. I want to do great things. Someone in my life planted an idea. One good idea, infact one very good idea. I have to do something great, for people, for life, because I just have too. I can't leave the idea alone, I can't deny it. I have to invent, to do something creative, cutting edge, ingenious. I hope I'm not the only one with this feeling. I'm sure many kids and people in life would feel the same way too, just about other things. Some may be fine with having average jobs, or no jobs, and being stay at home parents. But they know its good to raise their children right, and they just can't let that idea die. They have to be the best parents, excellent parents, perfect parents. They wanna make their children right, strong and true. Its like you get the idea that you wanna help feed your struggling neighbor, but the idea just can't be stopped there. There's this extra call, the idea grows, "how bout feeding the homeless in the town" the idea says. Then it moves to the state, the country and eventually the world. It impassions you. You can't just pick up the one piece of trash someone leaves. Something burns at you to pick up every single piece of trash you can find, the idea grows. The idea takes you on a journey, a dream. Once you know its good, once you know its right the dream just goes. It has too. And sometimes its tough, I've got school, classes, homework, I can't spend my whole day picking up trash, but something says "why not?"

But I can't, I say no, I choose to not follow the idea, to not let it take me to greatness, I stop short. I can't. I don't have time...I have school....I'm tired...It'll never work...I say no to the dream...and it dies.

It reminds me of the story of Creation.

It starts out with God the spirit, and The spirit hovers over the water, over the chaos, the void the nothingness, the not God there. And God creates this light, this light he calls good. This light of goodness. And the rest of creation is drawn up, one idea after another, one good idea, one very good idea after another, and placed in the light. And things just can't be just good. They have to be better, the ideas grow. The trees create more trees, the waters and land bring forth plants, animals, birds, the ideas just go. You can't stop um. And finally Adam and Eve are created. And the language changes, they're not just good ideas, they're very good. Its like all of creation is this ball on a track, and its just racing down hill, racing as fact as it can into more and more goodness, more and more from the darkness, from the nothingness, into something, into the light. Nothingness to light. Its not wonder the author continues to repeat "evening then morning, Evening then morning." Dark then light, dark then light. This beautiful image of very goodness becomes more perfect everyday. Crazy, It's inside us, everyday. Goodness growing, one right thing, and something burns for more righteousness, more excellence, the best we have to offer. Everything saying yes to God, YES TO GOD!

But the story continues, this crazy race, the ball's rolling, and what happens. Eve, she stops in the middle of the garden, around a tree, and what's she say..."no....no God...I choose nothingness...its easier...I choose death...I choose to be nothing."

Eve bites the apple. Adam does too. The dream starts to die, the whole thing gets confused. Its like the ball hits a fork in the track and part of it knows the answer, it knows which way is very good, One goes up, one goes down, and we get confused. This knew knowledge of good and evil confuses us, and we say "no...God...I can't pick it all up...I chose to be nothing." I'm reminded it of it every day. I choose it, I could be great, I could be very good, I could be perfect...and I'd rather be nothing. All of us at some point choose to be nothing. Why? Why's it so much harder to say yes.

It's a stupid dream, just a good idea, it still burns, but less and less everyday. Goodness gets lost. That one idea, one dream, that goodness is fading.

I pray that my nephew Aidan never says no. With all I am I want him to say yes, its not good enough to just be nothing, its not good enough to just be good enough, we've gotta say yes to God and be excellent, and grow into perfectness. We can't just spend the rest of our lives crawling, we have to stand, we can't just spend the rest of our lives knowing what a block is, we have to say it, we have to build. I pray that one day you will build, that you and I both won't say no, but choose to grow, to let that very goodness in us take us back to God.

Amen.