The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Aug 11, 2024
When I was a child, one of my dad’s favorite Westerns was The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. I think he just liked it because Clint Eastwood was in it. Clint is a legend. In the movie, he is The Good, and he is the one who rode away into the sunset. In real life, Clint is still riding.
Anyway, The Good outlasts The Bad and The Ugly. And that’s life. Seriously, it is. Goodness increases longevity, or it adds to vitality. Good nourishes the body, the mind, and the soul. Whether it is good food, movement, friends, or good news, goodness brings health to our entire being.
Goodness is the not-so-secret key to health, vitality, and longevity. I say it’s the not-so-secret key because it is often overlooked or misunderstood. It’s easy to overlook goodness and misunderstand what goodness is, especially in today’s world.
Today, we have so many distractions that rob us of the simplicity and nourishment of goodness. We live in a world of confusion, a world that flip-flops between facts, opinions, science, and beliefs. Basically, we live in a world driven by fear—the complete opposite of goodness.
Fear is the main reason we miss out on the healing, restorative nature of goodness. Fear does the exact opposite of everything goodness is and does for us. If we look back at our movie above, Fear is The Bad and The Ugly. Fear shortens our lives, weakens us, and makes us sick. Fear is the not-so-secret path to misery and destruction; it’s not-so-secret because it hides in plain sight and parades around in our faces constantly, yet we rarely even see it.
Fear is the darkness that blinds us. It is bad news, junk food, scarcity’s tempter, a whisper in someone’s ear, gossip, liar, jealous “friend,” or idle body. Fear robs us of our youth, vitality, and strength. It sickens our bodies, minds, and souls.
But we were not created for fear. We were created for goodness; we were meant to laugh with one another, encourage one another, help one another, protect one another, break bread with one another, and serve one another. That is GOODNESS. But so is beauty, so is moving in our physical design, so is eating natural food, so is sunshine, and so is love.
If we want to live the lives we were created to live, we need to be vigilant and protect our hearts from the lies and ways of fear. We need to practice receiving and offering goodness, taking walks, offering smiles, eating whole foods, turning off “the news,” thinking before we act, acting instead of hiding, and encouraging and complimenting our friends and neighbors. We need to live in and trust in our design and our Designer.
This is goodness. We were made to be The Good. We were not created for fear or it’s spectrum of hate, anger, arrogance, depression, and cowardice. No, we were created to be bold, courageous, energetic, joyful, and loved. But we must engage in these things to realize this goodness, just like we must engage in movement for movement to heal us. Being bold, courageous, energetic, joyful, and loving leads to a good life, the life we were meant to have. Being Loved leads to an amazing life. If we engage in these things and practice being these things, we may just find that there is no room for fear in our lives; no Bad, no Ugly, just Good.
It's a crazy thought, I know. But it is one I've been pondering and one I'm willing to explore. I am convinced we were meant to be The Good for Goodness' sake.
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