If one is doing something according to God, trial of some kind will come upon them, for trial and temptation either precede or follow all good.  Neither is it sure the thing is happening according to God, unless it is proved so by trials and temptations.

Dorotheos subscribed fully to the “no good deed goes unpunished” line of reasoning, but in the most uplifting and positively healthy way. Dorotheos (especially for his time) held an expansive worldview, understanding the rhythms and roller-coaster reality of daily living. Ups and downs are normal, all within the created order from God.

But Dorotheos also communicated strongly something noticeably absent from many other early century monks, mystics, and theologians – good is not easy. Many early writers simply said, “Be good, do good, and you will be blessed.” The early church into a simplistic notion that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. It doesn’t take a genius to know that reality doesn’t work this way. Terrible things happen to amazing, wonderful people, and a lot of mean, nasty, selfish, greedy, hostile, and hateful people seem to be blessed beyond all reason or justification. True today, true in the 6th century – basically just plain true.

Think on this for a moment: political and tech leaders in just this year alone have identified the following practices and principles as weak, stupid, worthless, and dangerous.

• Empathy
• Compassion
• Mercy
• Due process under the law
• Care for the poor
• Care for the sick
• Care for our military veterans
• Welcoming the stranger, including refugees and asylum seekers
• Forgiveness
• Tolerance
• Diversity
• Equity
• Inclusion

This is the short list. Education, employment, environmental protection and preservation, subsidies for food, health care, shelter, immigration, disaster relief have also been targets, and our leaders – the leaders of our country – have called opponents “scum, garbage, pigs, retards, stupid, dumb, Marxists, assholes,” resulting in those opponents sinking to their level with bon mots such as “Fascists, Nazis, dumbasses, jerks, lowlifes, deplorables, and monsters.” The high road is completely empty and seemingly closed for repairs.

And one example of trying to do good in such a polarized, divisive, and hostile environment. Jewish people are both a religion and an ethnicity. There are many decisions made by Jewish political leaders who weaponize their religion and hide behind their ethnicity to wage war, destroy property, take civilian lives, commit atrocities and human rights violations. Palestinians are a people of various faith traditions. In the American media, we often use “Arab” as a shorthand for Palestinian, and forget that there are Palestinian Christians, Palestinian Jews, as well as Palestinian Muslims. Within Islam, there is a hostile and violent minority, of which Hamas is a part. Being pro-Palestinian does NOT (necessarily) mean you are pro-Hamas. To protest the war crimes of Jewish cultural leadership is not anti-Semitic. Yet, look what happened when hundreds of thousands of U.S. college students protested the killing of women and children in Gaza by the Israeli military, the denial of water, food, and medical supplies, along with slanderous and libelous misinformation about the Palestinian civilians. They were labelled pro-Hamas and anti-Semitic. Were there Hamas supporting, anti-Jewish voices? Yes. Estimates place their number somewhere between 1-3%.

A second, more ubiquitous example is what our country is doing to people from other countries living, working, and learning in the United States. Again, we have been told that deportation and limits on immigration target violent criminals, drug and sex traffickers, and charged and convicted felons. But to date, more deportations have involved U.S. military veterans, students, farm and factory workers, healthcare workers, single mothers, children, and the disabled than have involved criminals. Most of this has happened outside Constitutional due process and federal court decisions. Standing up for undocumented residents, immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and those with dual citizenship is anything but easy, and for many it has been downright dangerous.

Good doesn’t equal easy. Right doesn’t mean safe. Brave doesn’t mean blessed. But that’s life. If we commit to do good, to be good, to proclaim good, to love good, it will come with a cost, but sometimes it is the trials and tribulations that help us remember why doing good is so important. And it is also a powerful reminder that there is strength in numbers – doing good alone is really hard; doing good together in community is still hard, but less lonely.

In this Advent time, how does staying focused on the good help you deal with problems and challenges? How does your faith enable you to stay focused on the good when it seems that everything is going wrong? What grace is contained in the long view that reminds us that life is a roller coaster with as many downs as ups?