Advent Attitude 6: Having Others’ Best Interests in Mind
I learned the definition of “slick salesman” when I was growing up and working in my dad’s drugstore. We had a constant flow of salespeople stopping in, eager to sell my dad the latest products that they promised would fly off the shelves. While they all seemed so friendly toward my dad, I noticed that my dad was lukewarm in response to some. It turns out that these were the salespeople who had “burned” my dad on previous occasions. Their friendliness was not authentic but simply a front in order to sell.
That brings us to the sixth Advent Attitude, which is having others’ best interests in mind. While all the salespeople who called on my dad were friendly and acted as though they had his best interests in mind, only a handful actually did have his best interests in mind. Their goodness was authentic, and they would go out of their way to help my dad succeed. In doing so, they earned his trust.
In Scripture, goodness is more than mere amiability. It is an attribute of God manifested by his constant attention to humankind’s best interests, even when humankind repeatedly failed. And the greatest example of God having our best interests in mind was the sending of his only Son, Jesus! God truly went out of his way to ensure that we have everything we need to “succeed” in the Kingdom, namely, his steadfast love and presence.
We, in turn, are called to bring that goodness of God—always having others’ best interests in mind—to others. Goodness is not measured simply by one’s ability to avoid doing badness. Rather, it is an active trait—an almost compulsive desire to pursue the best interests of others, often at the cost of one’s own needs. George Bailey (It’s a Wonderful Life) comes to mind. He was someone who continually put his own dreams on the back burner in order to enable others to achieve theirs. When people see such authentic goodness, they know that the person can be trusted.
Advent calls us to stretch beyond our comfort zones in order to reveal God’s goodness to others. We do that by having their best interests in mind and by putting our own needs aside. That is what it means to lay down your life for another. It does not necessarily mean to die physically, but to set aside our own needs in favor of tending to the needs of others. Parents and spouses do this every day, which is why I consider marriage and parenthood to be two of the most significant conversion experiences in a person’s life. In addition to these two profound vocations, however, anyone who unselfishly and sincerely provides a service to another person, even when receiving remuneration, is participating in goodness—teachers, first-responders, customer service
representatives, medical personnel, hairdressers, flight attendants, and so on. No matter what situation they find themselves in, they make a habit of having the best interests of others in mind—just like God does.
—Joe Paprocki, based on Under the Influence of Jesus
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