{"id":3097,"date":"2012-08-20T17:09:34","date_gmt":"2012-08-20T21:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=3097"},"modified":"2021-06-04T12:54:01","modified_gmt":"2021-06-04T16:54:01","slug":"made-for-goodness-and-why-this-makes-all-the-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3097","title":{"rendered":"Made for Goodness: And Why This Makes All the Difference"},"content":{"rendered":"

Made for Goodness: And Why This Makes All the Difference<\/a><\/em> (2010) Desmond Tutu<\/a> and Mpho Tutu<\/p>\n

\"Made<\/a>Let’s start this with a truth: Desmond Tutu is an amazing human being. <\/p>\n

Like his good friend, the Dalai Lama, he has lived through things that those of us in the developed world cannot even imagine yet has remained optimistic about humanity.<\/p>\n

He was one of the central figured in the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, and a witness to many of the horrors that happened in that fight for freedom, yet here he has written a book describing the inherent goodness and beauty of humanity.<\/p>\n

I’ve talked on my blog about God and religion and faith<\/a>, and many things Bishop Tutu says here are akin to what I feel.<\/p>\n

Perfect love is the love that is responsive rather than reactive. It pays little or no regard to the emotions aroused in any given moment. We love perfectly when the good we do cares nothing for how we feel. When we love perfectly we endure beyond endurance.We pour ourselves out despite pain, stress, sadness, or fatigue.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And of course there are statements beyond religion and faith, that move to the heart of changing yourself.<\/p>\n

In our world our self-worth seems so bound up in outdoing each other. We have this arbitrary set of standards against which we are constantly measuring ourselves, and we never measure up.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is stunning to think that a man I and so many others admire would think this about himself<\/em>. <\/p>\n

He also says something that reflects one of the issues I have with prayer (it’s not about prayer per se, but I think it reflects my thoughts to some degree).<\/p>\n

When hardships befall us, we cry out to heaven, “Why me?” When good fortune attends us, it is the grateful heart that has the courage to ask, “Why me?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Consider that: we always ask, “why me?” when something bad happens, but it is no less reasonable to ask the same thing when we have good fortune as well.<\/p>\n

And then we get to the heart of the argument, and what resonates so strongly with me.<\/p>\n

We have freedom to choose right. But that would be meaningless if there were not also the possibility that we would choose wrong. If there were no potential for evil, then our God-given freedom would be like the offerings of the old Ford Motor Company: “You can choose any color as long as it’s black.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes. That is precisely how I feel! Evil (or whatever you care to call it) exists because we have free will. Bad things happen because we are free to make choices.<\/p>\n

What kind of God would let these things happen? A God who will not violate our freedom.<\/p>\n

God has profound reverence for our freedom. Because in this regard, God will not send an angel with a flaming sword to stand before us to turn us away from our chosen path. I often say that God would rather we go freely to hell than that we be compelled to enter heaven.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes!<\/p>\n

If God is with us, and God is good, how can God watch while we suffer? Why does God not intervene to stir up the repentance of those who do us harm? Why does God not turn them aside from their wickedness? Because God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, but God is not capricious. A God who would suspend the laws of nature may soothe us in one moment but would, ever after, upend our sense of safety. We could never rely upon season following season. We could not be certain that heavy things would stay down or light things float up. A capricious God could, at any moment, decide that order had no place in creation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is so much wisdom in this book–wisdom from a man who has suffered and yet has lived the life he believed to be right. <\/p>\n

When we imagine we are self-made, we confine God to a controllable corner of our lives. After all, if we are self-made, then we are in charge. We know how our lives are meant to look and how to make them look that way. Failure offers us a chance to discern the hand of God in the patter of our lives. It offers us the opportunity to acknowledge the contributions of so many people, remembered and forgotten, who have all had a part in shaping the people we have come.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I highly recommend this book.
\nRating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by HarperCollins <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Made for Goodness: And Why This Makes All the Difference (2010) Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu Let’s start this with a truth: Desmond Tutu is an amazing human being. Like his good friend, the Dalai Lama, he has lived through things that those of us in the developed world cannot even imagine yet has remained […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,4,7],"tags":[414],"class_list":["post-3097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-10","category-non-fiction","category-religion-philosophy","tag-dalai-lama"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-NX","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":56,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/56","url_meta":{"origin":3097,"position":0},"title":"An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life","author":"Michelle","date":"February 6, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life The Dalai Lama Unlike the previous book I read by the Dalai Lama, this book only took me about nine months to read. They're not long books, I just tend to set them aside for something else, and then have to go\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Non-Fiction"","block_context":{"text":"Non-Fiction","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/non-fiction"},"img":{"alt_text":"0316930938.01._SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.klishis.com\/Books\/library\/0316930938.01._SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24629,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24629","url_meta":{"origin":3097,"position":1},"title":"An Unsuitable Heir","author":"Michelle","date":"June 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"An Unsuitable Heir (2017) KJ Charles (Sins of the Cities, #3) Set in London and Norfolk England in 1873 I do like Mark. \"Gone back off home now to bring down the Empire, trzymajmy kciuki.\u201d He tipped his glass. \u201cWhat was that?\u201d \u201cPolish. Means \u2018Let\u2019s keep our fingers crossed.\u2019?\u201d \u201cDid\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"An Unsuitable Heir","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/An-Unsuitable-Heir.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24605,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24605","url_meta":{"origin":3097,"position":2},"title":"An Unnatural Vice","author":"Michelle","date":"May 26, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"An Unnatural Vice (2017) K.J. Charles (Sins of the Cities #2) Set in London and Norfolk in 1873 He looked like the sin of angels, like the sweetest fruit at the goblin market, and Nathaniel despised everything about him. \u201cOh, for\u2014 What did you think I was doing?\u201d \u201cDidn\u2019t have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"An Unnatural Vice","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/An-Unnatural-Vice.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24243,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24243","url_meta":{"origin":3097,"position":3},"title":"The Sugared Game","author":"Michelle","date":"February 9, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Sugared Game (2020) KJ Charles (The Will Darling Adventures, #2) Set in London in 1924 \"Do you ever have the feeling the whole world changed while we were away and nobody bothered to mention it to us?\" \u201cI know you\u2019ve thought about this,\u201d Will said. \u201cBut there are men\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sugared Game","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Sugared-Game.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10091,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/10091","url_meta":{"origin":3097,"position":4},"title":"An Unsuitable Heir","author":"Michelle","date":"April 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"An Unsuitable Heir (2017) K.J. Charles (Sins of the City) Set in London in 1873 Mark is a private enquiry agent. He and his mother came to England, fleeing Poland after his mother got in trouble one too many times for her anarchism. Through the lawyer who often defended his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/An-Unsuitable-Heir.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":26429,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/26429","url_meta":{"origin":3097,"position":5},"title":"The Sugared Game","author":"Michelle","date":"March 29, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The Sugared Game (2020) KJ Charles (The Will Darling Adventures #2) Set in England in 1924 \u201cYou\u2019re Welsh,\u201d Will pointed out. \u201cYou\u2019ve got no room to talk about spelling.\u201d \u201cNothing wrong with Welsh spelling, thank you,\u201d Maisie said, with an edge on her accent. \u201cCome off it. You put two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sugared Game","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Sugared-Game-200x300.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3097\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}