I’m sure that I regularly use many superfluous words and expressions throughout the day. In technical writing, I eliminate such language but in casual conversation or chatting over the web, it can sound a bit robotic if you do so.
“Goodness” is just one example of a superfluous word – or the expression “oh my goodness” or “goodness me”.
Before I committed my life to Christ back in 1980, my speech would have been riddled with bad language. As a young child I refused to use bad language, but when I approached my teens, I started to crave coolness and credibility among my peers, and that was a simple way to achieve it. In my later teens, I tried to stop, but I never could. Then, when I became a Christian, I instantly stopped. It’s true that it’s not the worst of sins, and it’s very much a cultural issue. The Bible doesn’t give a list of forbidden words, although it does command us not to use the Lord’s name in vain (Ex 20:7).
Saying “goodness me” or “oh my goodness” would have sounded quite dorky to me at one time. But I’d sooner side with the dorky guys than the bad guys.
Here are two songs with “Goodness” in the titles.
I remember watching Shirley Temple as a child on RTE TV on Sunday afternoons. The girls in my house used to like her, and us boys used to hate her, but looking at her now, I’m amazed that such a young child should be so talented. Later in life she became a U.S. ambassador. She passed away aged 85 in 2014.
The second song is a comedy song from 1960. I first heard it in 1988. It’s probably not played much nowadays because some might deem it racist for Peter Sellers to put on an Indian accent. It’s a little like Apu in the Simpsons. But perhaps many Indians just find it funny. I certainly find it funny when people put on Irish accents.
A few years ago, Alan Partridge pretended to interview an Irish Alan Partridge lookalike. He is about the only comedian that sends me into fits on uncontrollable laughter at times. Much of the series wasn’t all that funny, but now and then, you discover real gems that makes it worth watching.
The real meaning of goodness is simply being good. It’s part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:33). And ultimately, no-one is truly good except God alone (Luke 18:9), but people can be good in a relative sense (Luke 23:50).
2 Thessalonians 1:11
With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.
I’ll conclude with two songs that include the word “goodness” in its proper context.
Hibernia Gospel 