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How big is good?
One hot summer when I lived in a crowded city, I was jolted from sleep every night at 3:00 a.m. by loud rock music blaring from a neighbor’s window. I tried closing my window, but it was much too hot. I tried calling my neighbor’s landlord, but could not reach him. My shouts across the alley could not be heard above the din. Even calls to the police brought no relief from the nightly onslaught.
Maybe you’ve had an experience like this and you’d like to improve your relationship with your neighbors. Perhaps there’s a conflict in your family, workplace, or community you’d like to see resolved. What I learned from the situation I just described is that we need to ask and answer the question: How big is good?
That is a crucial question, for few things affect our relationships with others more profoundly than our concept of good. The material senses constantly present a limited, material picture of good—as a commodity affordable to some but not to others, an attribute that exists here but not there, a meager allotment that will not stretch enough to go around.
Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.
July 23, 2012 &
July 30, 2012
double issue
View Issue
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Letters
Steven Price, Blanche Saul, Candace Gibson
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Rejoicing together
Kim Shippey, Senior Staff Editor
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Borderless community
Walter Rodgers
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How big is good?
Nancy Mullen
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A rising tide lifts all boats
Jeff Ward-Bailey
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My first interfaith experience
Bonnie Mitchinson
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Embracing communities worldwide
Kim Shippey, Senior Staff Editor
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Climate change: What I could do
Elizabeth Graser-Lindsey
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Delight in international giving
Peter Dry
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Praying for a school community
Suzanne Smedley
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The grizzly bear delusion
Glenn Williams
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Salvation
Brian Kissock
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Unlimited resources
Heather Howland Kany
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Planted in a new path
Dorothy H. Thomson
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Love's leading
Tad Blake-Weber
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Seeking the way
Linda Gridley Lane
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The answer
Barbara Whitewater
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Solutions
Charlotte Bushnell
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Marjorie and the Dream
Phyllis W. Zeno
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Focused thought
Richard Albins
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God made you perfect
Megan Meehan
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What are you going to be when you grow up?
Leide Lessa
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Sign me up!
Bob Minnocci
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I shared with my professor
Bruce Matouka
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Your questions about church
Answers offered by Tim Myers and Michelle Nanouche
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'A spiritual model of life'
William Otieno
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The 'more excellent way'
Christa Kreutz
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Finding our God-given freedom
Ann Edwards
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A healing standard
Mark Sappenfield
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A summer of 'radical acts'
Jeff Ward-Bailey
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Lots of Laughs
Madora Kibbe
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Protected during a fall
Norma P. Cooper with contributions from Elizabeth Gibbons
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Chest pains overcome
B. James Jokerst
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Spinal meningitis healed
Charles O'Gorman
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Spine fracture healed
Brooks Rakos
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What makes you who you are?
The Editors