Good Guys

In the old movies, it was always easy to identify the good guys; they wore white hands, stood for justice, and always got the girl in end.  Metaphorically, the process worked the same in life.  Good people dressed a certain way, if only they knew what it was.  Good people always stood for the same things in life, often in the same priority sequence.  With time and experience, everyone knew the difference between right and wrong; it was the same across cultures, times, and places.  Of course, good things never happened for bad people.  Life tragedies were great, yet the good never paid as great of a price as those mired in evil’s pit.
 
God never saw it that way.  I am not sure where our illusions came from, but I know it was not from any divine source.  Reality is that all good comes from God.  We have bits and pieces within us, no matter how we dress, look, or behave.  It does not end here.  God places a higher value on mercy than justice, compassion than full accountability, and acceptance versus exclusion.  In the end, each will have its full place in life, however in the present God focuses on each individual in the community.
 
The last part of the illusion is the worst.  Bad things happen to good people.  Bad people do make good decisions.  Ironically, our labels of bad and good have no particular relevance to God.  We are all Divinity’s children.  God desires that each should experience the best in life. 
 
This particular view is not new for God.  It has always been.  To an ancient, from some perspectives pagan king, God “says to Cyrus, ‘My shepherd—everything I want, you'll do it.’  He says to Jerusalem, ‘Be built,’ and to the Temple, ‘Be established.’”  (Isaiah 44.28)  Cyrus was God’s shepherd on the spot.  Great things came from his choices, actions, and decisions.
 
You may not feel like it; you are good.  Circumstances may not tell the story; you are rich.  God defines our states of being, not the world.