The phrase “God is good” is a prevelant one in the contemporary Christian vernacular. I say it all the time. But, in my humble observation, we use it in a dangerous way. We speak of God being good in reference to some particular blessing He has shown us. A loved one has been cured of an ailment, troubling finances work themselves free, we’re having a good day, we are happy, etc. etc.
I want to be careful hear. I don’t want to discredit those statements. God is incredibly good and often reveals such truth through these avenues. But I fear our perspective on “God is good” has become very me-centered. I think it is a dangerous thing when His goodness is so often tied to our well being.
Is God not good when our loved ones perish? Is He not good when we are in turmoil? Is our understanding of His Goodness directly related to our personal happiness?
Most tragically, I think the idea that “God is good” has become a servant of our circumstance, rather than the reality that God is Good driving our circumstance. Perhaps better said, we often start with what is happening in our lives and support it by claiming God’s Goodness rather than prioritizing God’s Goodness as a catalyst for what is to happen in our lives. It ought to be my motivation for giving rather than my justification for receiving.
My life is full of materials and relationships that are rare in our global context. And I could not be more thankful for all of it. But God is good way beyond the walls of my heart. Way beyond the limits of my perception and understanding. And I exist to serve that Goodness, to share and spread it as far and wide and deep as He allows me to go.
This is why I am going on the World Race. Because God is good. Whether I am involved in miraculously healing the sick or die of cholera in the field, God is good. If I return to the States with a better understanding of me or Him, or if I return twice as confused, God is nonetheless just as good. Whether I see hope or frustration in the worldwide church, God is good.
I want to serve Him and trust His Goodness beyond anything I can accept or imagine. This is what radical love is all about. Holding to the proclamation that He is good even when I am writhing in despair. Even in the face of disfigurement or death. Even when persecuted, misunderstood, or hated. Even when I fail and my weaknesses are abundantly manifest. When something I love is taken from me, when I am thrust into mystery and uncertainty, when the storms of life are raining down misery on my heart; God is Good.
I love that verse that says, “in this world you will have trouble, but take heart for I have overcome the world.” I may be a fool, but to me this is not the conventional comfort you might expect. He does not promise that our troubles will end, even that they will be solved. In fact, in the greater Biblical context, we are told to expect turmoil, to rejoice in sufferings. Christians ought to expect to be put in danger, to be uncomfortable, to be tempted, and to find this world too much to bear. The solution is not solving our problems, it is encountering them for a greater purpose. God has overcome the world by rising above it. He wins by being the reason that turmoil is worth the while. He has overcome the world by making suffering a tool for His Glory rather than an agent of pure devestation.
We lose our passion for our faith, our willingness to serve others, our fervor for the Gospel because our statement that “God is good” is confined by the blessings that we see and understand in our own lives. But His Goodness is so much greater than that! His goodness ought to be the reason I do things, not the reason I have things. I live in a heart that is too often concerned with what people think, too unwilling to trust beyond my capacities, and too scared that God’s goodness might cost me my own.
I, for one, am tired of all this. We are talking about the eternal Goodness of the God of the universe, the author of love, the Eternal One. It is time for us to take the risks. Time for us to hurt and suffer. Time for us to lay down our comforts and give all that we have, all that we are, for the sake of the greatest truth life has ever known. Because God is good.
