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Gooey Goodness

"If you have sound nerves and intelligence and health and popularity and a good upbringing, you are likely to be quite satisfied with your character as it is. 'Why drag God into it?' you may ask. A certain level of good conduct comes fairly easily to you. You are not one of those wretched creatures who are always being tripped lip by sex, or dipsomania, or nervousness, or bad temper. Everyone says you are a nice chap and (between ourselves) you agree with them. You are quite likely to believe that all this niceness is your own doing: and you may easily not feel the need for any better kind of goodness." (C.S. Lewis: "Nice People or New Men" in Mere Christianity)

Being nice and being good are two different things. Being nice is often easier, and can function as a defense in some cases when goodness seems to be out of reach. Being good (in the sense of your taking an action) can be sometimes pleasurable, sometimes painful, but it is always sacrificial. Niceness may mask ill-intent, while goodness not only makes direct demand upon the soul, but also makes one aware of one's shortcomings. It is here, when one finds he or she can't measure up to the demands of Goodness, that grace reigns finest (or, if grace is misunderstood, where law becomes slave master, driving one into hiding or into perfectionism). Being nice is an action. Being good, however little we understand it, is a condition, one that's been earned for us and that we could never become by ourselves. That's the beauty of grace.
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