I've been meandering through Steven Garber’s latest, Visions of Vocation, in recent days and came across an inspiring and thought provoking suggestion. Garber writes that we are called to be common grace for the common good; a simple idea to assent to but a much more complex idea to embody.
The idea of the common good is a beautiful one really, but slippery to be sure. There are far too many opportunities for detours along the way as we humans love diversions and debates surrounding what the good even is and just how we go about it realizing it...
In a recent article for TIME, Jim Wallis asks: Whatever Happened to the Common Good? Wallis notes:
The common good has origins in the beginnings of Christianity. An early church father, John Chrysostom (c. 347–407), once wrote: “This is the rule of most perfect Christianity, its most exact definition, its highest point, namely, the seeking of the common good . . . for nothing can so make a person an imitator of Christ as caring for his neighbors.