8.7.2026 - Jody Duncan

FRIDAY, AUGUST 7

Mark 10:18

God gives us his goodness.

Today we read Mark 10:18. Read the brief verse now or at the end of this devotion. What do these few words teach us about the singularity of God’s goodness?

There are many ways to divide people into binaries. There are men and there are women. There are Christians and there are non-Christians. There are dog-lovers and there are cat-lovers. There are ketchup-on-rib-eye people and ‘How dare you desecrate that steak with ketchup’ people.

One of the most significant divides, in my opinion, is that between those who believe people are inherently good and those who believe people are NOT inherently good. To be clear, this second group doesn’t think people are intrinsically evil; they just don’t believe they are intrinsically good.

Christians tend to fall into the latter group, most likely because scripture makes it so abundantly clear that we are sinful by nature:

“Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” Psalm 51:5

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9

“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.” Romans 5:12

And, finally, Jesus’ words in Mark, our scripture today, telling us that only God is good. The rest of us, not so much.

We look around us and see sin everywhere. Corruption, violence, greed, deceitfulness, resentment – all are on our phones, on our TV and computer screens and in our faces all day long. Easy to spot. Impossible to miss.

Easier to miss is the goodness that also abounds in this world, right alongside the evil. To see it, we must look harder and with our eyes open a bit wider. Goodness is there. God gives it to us.

I recently became aware of a story of goodness that was the most inspirational I’d ever heard.

Years ago, I recall passing a man with cerebral palsy who sold peanuts from his wheelchair in front of the Target on Tyler Street in Riverside (across from the Tyler Mall). It seemed he was always there, and I wondered who he was, if he had a family, and how he managed to support himself on the sale of peanuts.

The other night, while having dinner with friends, they mentioned that they had just attended the most incredible memorial service. It was for someone they hadn’t known personally, but was the father of their pool maintenance man, with whom they had forged a close bond. Out of love for him, they went to his father’s memorial service.

His father was Merrill Nelson, known as the ‘Peanut King,’ the man who had sold peanuts in front of that Target for thirty years, augmenting his disability payments so that he could support his family – a wife and three children. He was something of a legend in Riverside. He couldn’t speak due to the cerebral palsy, but his mind was sharp, and he figured out ways to communicate. He was always cheerful and smiling. He never whined or complained. He was told he’d die a young man. He was 83 when he died in June of this year.

Merrill Nelson was an icon of extraordinary goodness in the face of extraordinary challenges. He was a Christian man, endowed with amazing grace, courage and goodness from God the Father.

Goodness was there in his children, as well. One of them, Royal – my friends’ pool guy – devoted many years of his life to caring for his father as the old man’s condition deteriorated. His father had been a wonderful parent and a grand influence. In fact, Royal – who had few resources as a young man – started his pool maintenance business, thinking: ‘If my dad could run a peanut-selling business, in his condition, I can run a business of my own.’

Goodness nearly flooded the memorial service for Merrill. It was standing-room-only as people came to honor the Peanut King.

Let us all remember and honor the goodness in this world, given to us by our heavenly Father. Let us remind ourselves to look for it, today and every day.