Good people are often portrayed as weak They get bullied. They are pushed around. Bad people are able to abuse them and they don’t fight back.
Is this true? Are good people really weak? I think we really have to clarify one of the most common misconceptions about being good.
Let’s start by going back to the examples given above, where a good person is hurt but doesn’t fight back. When a person doesn’t fight back, does it necessarily mean she is good? I think not. Because a person may not fight back for several reasons, and one of which is that she may be unable to fight back – she is weak! In reality, a person may want to fight back and avenge herself, she may want to condemn the person who hurt her and really hurt that person in return. In that case, the person isn’t really good, she is just powerless to carry out her desires.
On the other hand, a person who doesn’t fight back may also be genuinely good. That person may have the power to defend herself, even to hurt the other person, but she doesn’t do it because she chooses another path. In this case, this person is good and also strong. Even if she has the power to fight back, she becomes more powerful than her natural instincts. She goes beyond her hurt. She is able to reach the path of forgiveness, self control and understanding. In fact, she has fought the urge to take vengeance so that she may not hurt other people. She is given violence, but she gives back peace. She is hurt, but she chooses the path of healing.
I truly believe that only the strong can be good. It is the weak who are often harsh and wicked. It may take a certain amount of strength to carry out one’s anger, but it takes a lot more strength to go beyond that anger and subdue it for the highest good of all.
It is easy to wallow in negativity, in anger and self-pity and bitterness. It is far more difficult to let go of one’s hurts in order to welcome the more positive things in life.
Have you ever felt a certain heaviness while allowing too much negative feelings to rule over you? On the other hand, can you still remember how light you felt when you were happy?
Negative energies are heavy and pulls us down. Positive energy is lighter and rises upwards towards heaven. It takes a certain kind of strength to resist this heavy negative force and transmute it into something pleasant and light. Be strong. Only the strong can ever truly be good.
Check Jocelyn's books:
"Of Waves and Butterflies: Poems on Grief", "Mend My Broken Heart", "Questions to God", "To Love an Invisible God", "Defending My Catholic Faith", and more - click here.
(You may freely quote excerpts from this website as long as due credit is given to author Jocelyn Soriano and the website itakeoffthemask.com)
2 replies on “Are Good People Weak?”
I got into a terrible conflict with a person at work. He claimed our project was going down the drain due to an ad hoc change I’d made, partially due to a misunderstanding between him and me. It was no problem whatsoever, merely a speed bump, but he kept claiming everything was going to hell, due to the minor change of plans. I had to fight off his negativity for months. I kept saying, ‘everything is fine’, he the opposite. The project did not fail! So he was proven wrong. Still he hated me. I could feel it in my guts. He wanted me dead and gone, even though everything was running beautifully. He still made negative remarks, probably because he was envious.
After the end of the ‘nuclear war’ I was fairly exhausted, and I felt polluted by his negativity. As of today I’m still working on regaining my stamina. He has lost face, and he knows it, and I’m a tad bitter that he made hell out of nothing for weeks and weeks.
There’s one thing I regret about that incident, I was maybe to focused on avoiding harsh words in the discussions we had. I treated him with way to much respect. Maybe I should have just told him to sod off from the start. On one hand my positive focus helped save the project, but on the other hand my polite manners made him misinterpret me as… I don’t know, perhaps less strong than I really am. For me, the incident has raised many questions. There was war, and I kept acting civilized. Was I right to do that I wonder.