Warning

Warning – never write a blog entry entitled “God is Good,” and expect/think that nothing will happen (sooner than later at that) to make you wonder, even if only for the briefest instant, if that is really true.

Now, I know that it IS true.  God IS good.  But I also know that this life is not. Not all of the time. No matter how many T-shirts, baseball caps and bumper stickers assure me and you that ‘Life is Good,’ don’t for one minute believe that to be a consistently true statement.

God is good despite the fact that life is not always good. Despite the fact that things and people aren’t always what they seem and don’t always turn out the way you want them to. Despite what others say and do. Despite the way things look. Despite the way you feel.

One thing you can be sure of – God never, EVER changes. That is a part of His nature – to be unchanging. Unwavering. He is not fickle or double-minded like we are. God is good – all the time. That never changes.

But circumstances and people do change. All the time. Wednesday could be a perfectly wonderful day.  The. Best. Day. Ever., as people like to say. But then Thursday rolls in like a killer storm, complete with torrential downpours, deafening thunder, blinding lightning bolts and tsunami-sized waves. Sunday could be a day filled with joyful blessings, a day where it’s easy to praise God, a day where it’s easy to see and say and believe that God is good.

And then Monday comes along and begins to unravel like a bad sweater.

You car breaks down, your cell phone dies and oh, by the way, you left your wallet at home. Or you go online and find that three of your checks have bounced, with more on the way because your account is showing INSUFFICIENT FUNDS (always shown in blood red, just in case you missed it being in bold caps). Meanwhile, you realize that your rent is due today. And later on, you find out that you didn’t get that better paying job everyone, including you, were absolutely SURE you were going to get.  

Do you still believe that God is good?

Or how about this scenario?  You get to the job you already have, get called into the office and are told that your services are no longer needed and please go back to your desk to pack your things, your severance check is in the mail, have a nice day. You plod back to your desk -- where there are some empty boxes all ready and waiting for you and you find yourself greeted by two rather intimidating gentlemen from your employer’s goon squad…sorry…security office, to keep an eye on you and accompany you as you leave the building, just in case you might be thinking about going postal and shooting up the entire office on your way out the door. 

Might you be thinking: God is good?

The phone rings at home, you answer it, and the voice on the other end tells you news you don’t want to hear:

·         Your son’s been arrested

·         Your parents are divorcing

·         Your daughter was in an accident and is at the ER

·         Your spouse isn’t coming home

·         Your test for cancer or diabetes or heart disease came back positive

Is God still good then?

Yes, of course He is.  

However, it can be a truth that's difficult to grasp and hold tightly to in the midst of life being not so good.  In fact, it's downright, exasperatingly hard. When things begin to spiral downward in life, I can almost see the enemy slithering up next to me, raising one eyebrow, nodding his head and saying with an eerie chuckle, "So....how's that whole 'God is good' thing working for you now, dearie?" 

Not long after I wrote  'God is Good'   and posted it, some things in my life began to unravel like that aforementioned bad sweater.  Because, as we all know, after a lesson always comes the test. 

But --  in spite of the things I see going on around me in my family, in my neighborhood, in the lives of dear friends, as well as in the Church and, of course, in the world, things that anger, sadden, confuse and frighten me -- I will choose to remember and believe that God is still good. 

Even after the three phone calls I received in an hour's time that left my head spinning and my heart pounding out of my chest the other day.  Even after someone near and dear to me shared some news yesterday that made me sick, broke my heart and caused me to wonder what the future will hold for them now, I will choose to remember and believe that God is still good.

What about you, dear friends? Who or what in your life is causing you to struggle to remember this truth, that God is still good even when life is not?

Will you join me today, and in the coming days, in choosing to remember and to say, along with the prophet, Habakkuk: 

Though the fig tree should not blossom,

    nor fruit be on the vines,

the produce of the olive fail

    and the fields yield no food,

the flock be cut off from the fold

    and there be no herd in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord;

    I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

God, the Lord, is my strength;

    He makes my feet like the deer's;

    He makes me tread on my high places. ~ Habakkuk 3:17-19, ESV