OUR VOICES JOINED TOGETHER IN UNISON: "Save us, O Lord, from the cynical mind that scoffs at truth and beauty and makes of no account those things which are of good report."
This weekly chapel prayer from my prep-school days didn't mean much to me at the time. But it must have made an impression, because I've never forgotten it. Perhaps that's because looking at the world today through the lens of the news, or even everyday experience, reveals good reason for cynicism, fear, and despair. The things of good report seem scarce, and the variations of evil endless. History and circumstance train us to distrust, or scoff at, goodness, even though we thirst for it daily. And yet the Bible is clear on the importance of choosing good as the reality.
"Whatsoever things are true," wrote the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Philippians, "whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." It's not an empty command. He continued, "Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you." Phil. 4:8, 9. The God of peace shall be with you. In other words, choosing good, focusing on it, and understanding more about it has practical results: It enlarges our view of God and of ourselves as His children. Then our efforts to see and experience goodness aren't just responses to a laundry list of problems. They're the natural outcome of our love for all things good and godlike—and of our fidelity to God's spiritual reality.
