Is good enough good enough?

You don’t have to be good.

Make ‘good enough’ your new standard.

Trust me.

Before it was used as part of the modern Christmas story, and even before it was present in some of the rituals of other cultures around this time of year (which informed its mechanism in the modern Christmas story), the concept that to get gifts, and be blessed, you must be good and that if you’re not, you’ll miss out, or even get punished, has been foundational in many of the worlds great religions. You reap what you sow, the energy you put out you get back, cause and effect, your good or bad behaviour creates what you experience in the life to come after this one - it's a bedrock in the way society works. Ultimately, the idea of its use in the Christmas story originated to protect children from venturing out at night, while also encouraging good behaviour by all. Quid Pro Quo - have you been naughty or nice? There is a list, God is watching, 'you better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, and I'll tell you why…'

Putting these words to a bright jingle may keep from sinking into the actual inference of the song, but do yourself a favour: google the lyrics to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," and you'll get a fairly good idea of what much of the world thinks about God.

"He knows if you've been sleeping,

He knows when you're awake,

He knows if you've been bad or good,

So be good for goodness sake."

It's interesting that in many faith traditions, the pressure to be a good person and to do good things while being told that the foundation of your being is corrupt and incapable of anything holy, drives (manipulates) behaviour. The concept of original sin (yes, it is ONLY a concept) and the bleak state we believe the human heart to be in, can have a person twisted up in knots trying to create something good from a life they've been told isn't. And if you can't be good? If you can't rise to the challenge? Leave those 'sins' behind? Do better and be better? You won't ascend as high as you could if you did. You may even end up in hell if you lose your faith, if you continue to be bad, naughty, not good. For a faith tradition that is meant to be founded on grace and love, we sure do take on board many dogmas and doctrines that are all about controlling and manipulating behaviour.

Have you been naughty or nice? Nice kids get gifts, and naughty kids get none.

Have you be good or bad? Good people go to heaven, and bad people burn in hell.

It's like there is no trust for humanity to be benevolent, to do the right thing from the core of their beings because it is the right thing, they can only be given an incentive to do it, or manipulated to do it, or controlled, scared, tied up, to do it.

In the Christmas movie "The Rise of the Guardians," one of the characters says:

“Things have changed. We no longer only give gifts to kids who've been good while the naughty ones miss out; gifts are given to those who believe.”

You do not have to be good; you need only to believe. That is enough. That is good enough. You only need to believe that you are already good before you do anything and that everything you do and everything that happens to you is a portal for learning and growth, connection and becoming. This is a Christmas series about the difference between being nice and kind, about living a value-based life rather than leaning on behaviour to determine value, yours and everyone else's. Because before there was a man dressed in red who flew with reindeers, and St Nicholas became the patron saint of Children, and Yuletide was celebrated across Europe, and the winter solstice brought whole communities together in feast and dance,

God took on skin and became a human being, not to save us from ourselves, but to show us, as any good parent does when they lead by example, how good it is to be here and how good it is to be you.

There is no list; you are free to be.

Good enough is the new standard. Let it be so.

Consider this: You do not have to be good because goodness is what you already are. At its foundational essence, this is the meaning of Christmas, and its gift is to remind you of it year after year after year.

See you in the App,

Liz Milani xo
Instagram: @thepracticeco 

From this week’s series titled "Good Enough," with a subscription in the App. Hope to see you there.