Upfront July 9, 2012 Issue

Goodness: what's now, and what's next?

Jeff Ward-Bailey, Staff Editor

I love the place that the word and occupies on the cover of this week’s issue: “The good now and the good ahead.” There’s such a wonderful promise there: the promise that goodness, supply, and happiness aren’t limited prospects. It’s so easy to see resources and opportunities as trade-offs: I can go out with friends now (good), but then I’ll have to catch up on work tomorrow (bad, at least from a social perspective). Or maybe I’ll have to go without things I need today, in order to be able to pay bills later.

Our cover stories are all about hopping off that see-saw by recognizing that the spiritual resources at hand now don’t compromise what’s available to us down the road. Just the opposite! God’s blessings in our lives can’t be limited, now or later, and we have every right to expect to have, and even insist on having, what we need as a natural outgrowth of God’s great love for us. Channing Walker expresses it this way in our lead article: “See goodness as flooding out from an inexhaustible spiritual source, and the good in your life multiplies. The true goodness of now doesn’t appear at the expense of the true goodness ahead” (p. 4).

There are lots of other good articles ahead in this issue, too! On page 14, Moira Doyle offers a spiritual perspective on fashion and beauty. And in our “For Teens” section on page 15, Jenny Sawyer discusses how our prayers can have an uplifting effect in the realm of social media.

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