Discernment

OK So I had a clear moment of thought this morning (something that I knew already but became more clear this morning) and I am going to share it with you, O Lucky Reader. You, who probably had this clear moment of thought long ago. Normally when I actually write these moments down they seem insignificant and so I trash them before I can post them. However if you are reading this now, then unfortunately for you I decided to go ahead and share my wisdom (cough, couch).
This morning I read Hebrews 5 and came to these last verses:

13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.


And I stopped to think about the use of the words good and evil because I really expected them to be right and wrong. I mean righteousness has the work right in it. And so I thought about how the words good and evil are so much better than right and wrong and how previously I would have perhaps used them interchangeably but how now after thinking about it, I hope to be able to keep them separate and distinct. And that is why I am posting my clear moment of thought here on my blog; to help me remember.

Thinking in terms of right and wrong is easier. Right and Wrong are concrete and sturdy. They are literal. In Math there is only one answer. You are either right or wrong. Many questions only have one answer; you are either right or wrong. Who wrote Moby Dick? Herman Melville is the only right answer. Right and Wrong are Safe.

Good and evil are much broader. They can change, they can look different under changing circumstances, they are harder to discern and they involve more choice. And when you really get down to it they point to motivation. Doing something because it is right implies duty. Doing something because it is good seems to me to imply choice. (I think I might be on the cusp of understanding free will… maybe not).

But what does this mean to me? It means that I need to focus on teaching my children about choosing between good and evil and not what is right and wrong. And it means for me to focus on the same.
Is the suffering that Job went through right? It would seem that the answer is no. Suffering is wrong. I don’t want Job to suffer. But was it good? Yes it was. May I be able to keep Good in perspective.