MARCH 30, 2026

  “Most of the evil in this world is done by people with good intentions.”  

~ T.S. Eliot

JUDGES 1-2

20Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and said, “Because this nation has violated the covenant I ordained for their ancestors and has not listened to me, 21I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. 22I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the Lord and walk in it as their ancestors did.” 23The Lord had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua. (2:20-23)

LUKE 7:1-30

He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. 7That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 9When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” 10Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.

JOURNAL

I’ve been sitting with the idea that much of the harm in this world is done by people who genuinely believe they are doing what is right. That realization used to frustrate me because I’ve always wanted to believe that if I could just think clearly enough, try hard enough, and stay disciplined enough, I could align my intentions and actions perfectly. But that simply hasn’t been true. What I am beginning to see is that even my best intentions are not pure in the way I want them to be. They are shaped by things I don’t fully see or understand, my past, my fears, my desire for control, my need for approval, and my pride. All of it mixes into what I call good, and yet underneath it there are motives and blind spots I cannot fully untangle on my own.

That realization is humbling in a way I cannot escape. It means I am not as reliable as I thought I was, even at my best. It means that trying to perfect my behavior or purify my motives through effort alone is an exhausting and endless pursuit. I can always look back and find something I missed, something I could have done better, something that was subtly about me instead of others. Humility, then, is not thinking less of myself, but recognizing clearly that even my best is limited. It is understanding that my good is still flawed, and that I do not have the ability to make it fully right on my own.

And strangely, that is where freedom begins. If that is true, then my role is not to perfect myself, but to surrender myself. To offer my actions, both good and bad, to God and trust that He is the only one who can take what is incomplete, imperfect, and even misguided, and use it for something meaningful. It shifts everything. It moves me away from striving to control outcomes or prove my worth and toward simply being present and faithful in this moment. It allows me to release the burden of trying to make everything right and instead trust the One who redeems all things.

It also changes how I see others. If I struggle to act purely even when I want to, then so does everyone else. That does not excuse harm, but it does create compassion. It reminds me that we are all limited, all influenced by things we do not fully understand, and all in need of grace. So where does that leave me? It leaves me in surrender, not passive but honest, offering what I have, knowing it is not enough on its own, and trusting that God is enough. It leaves me grateful that He does not require perfection, but instead works through imperfection. Maybe that is the point all along, not that I become flawless, but that I become dependent, not that my actions become perfect, but that I trust the One who can redeem them, because in the end even my best intentions need a Savior.

8When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. 9“This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”

10Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me.11The poor you will always have with you,^a but you will not always have me. 12When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. 13Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

MATTHEW 26:8-13