Man is Generally Good

Yesterday I had the opportunity to work with Habitat for Humanity in building a house for a family that needed a hand. As I was signing in, the woman in charge asked how I'd heard about the project. I mentioned that I'd met the group leader through friends at church and that the people I had brought with me were friends from church. She then asked what church I went to and sounded surprised when I told her The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It occurred to me that I had assumed the people there would be if not fellow members, at least aware of our church and its teachings. Perhaps I've lived in the Arizona "bubble" too long.

I was impressed with the other volunteers and found myself wondering what their various motives were. Sometimes I think in the church we learn to serve out of a sense of obligation. These people weren't there from obligation... just from a genuine desire to serve.

As many do, this train of thought led me to something I read from C.S. Lewis. At the end of his book, The Last Battle, Lewis describes a scene where the children are taken back to Narnia (heaven) to live with Aslan the lion. (**spoiler alert** Everyone dies at the end. Don't cry... it's a happy ending.) When they arrive, one of the soldiers of Calormen has also been taken to Narnia. The soldier describes what happened when he found himself there and met the Lion:

"Then I fell at his feet and thought, Surely this is the hour of death, for the Lion (who is worthy of all honour) will know that I have served Tash all my days and not him. Nevertheless, it is better to see the Lion and die than... to live and never have seen him. But the Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, 'Son, thou art welcome.' But I said, 'Alas, Lord, I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash.'
He answered, 'Child all the service thou hast done unto Tash, I account as service done to me... Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites -- I take to me the services which thou hast done to him. For I and he are such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done unto him... unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek.'

I've spent a lot of my life being a cynic... always assuming the worst of people. It has come to my attention that this way of thinking has profited me nothing. In fact, I'm sure I've missed numerous opportunities because of it. In spite of man's carnal nature and tendency toward pride and selfishness, humans also have a general tendency toward good will and service... no matter their differences in religion, race, etc.

I would do well to recognize that more often.