We watched a YouTube clip at church tonight, from a show called The Moment Of Truth. A woman was being asked a host of personal questions while hooked to a lie detector. The more questions she answered truthfully, the more money she got. Eventually, it came out that she was unfaithful in her marriage, that she'd still been in love with her ex on her wedding day, that she thought her ex was the love of her life and that she should have ended up with him... her poor husband heard it all and was shattered, especially when the ex was brought in to ask the most revealing questions. Still, the woman kept going, kept answering no matter how awful the questions, winning more and more money... until the last, fateful question. The presenter asked her if she thought she was a good person; she said yes; the lie detector said she was lying.
This woman lost $100, 000 because she thought that she believed herself to be a good person and she didn't. It got me thinking about what a slippery slope the subject is; i began to wonder whether or not i thought that i was a good person.
In many ways, i think i am, because i help out so many people who need it, give so much of my time up for others or for work. I try to do the right thing by people, i'm loyal and caring and a good friend. In that respect, i think i'm a good person, when it comes to the way i treat people. But when it comes to looking back on all of the mistakes that i have made, i really don't think that i could honestly believe that i'm a good person - i've done some dodgy things. Probably not in relation to what society would say is dodgy, but for a christians, i've done some 'bad' things. I fight with my family, i do stupid things, i make mistakes. I realise that makes me human - but does it still make me 'good'? If i was asked whether i was a good person, while hooked up to a lie detector and with $100, 000 on the line, what would i say?
The Moment Of Truth is a stupid show. But it made me think, and that's something.
1 comment:
I think that in christianity there is no room for guilt. Jesus loves and accepts all of you, even the part you try to hide. It's a relationship, not a religion. And a relationship has room for failure, like performing above a safety net. There's freedom to be yourself, to be real and not to have to be someone you're not. Because you can't fix yourself. It's good to desire to be better, but it's something we do out of love as God pulls us into our future, taps us on the shoulder and says "I think it's time we worked on this".
Apart from reproducing ugly photos of your friends and sending them to people you're a good person.
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