Chewymom

I have joined a liberal Bible study. Oh, I jest. It is a Bible study lead by the pastor’s wife of a church that many of my local friends would consider to be “liberal,” because it is main-line. Let me tell you, this leader is a godly woman who understands more about the gospel and applying it to her own life and to the lives of those she loves than most people I know. She is a treasure and a gift in my life!

Anyway, my leader starts each Bible study by saying, “God is good,” to which we respond, “all the time.” And then the reverse - she says, “All the time,” and we respond, “God is good.” It is a helpful reminder!

On Facebook, I often see people post prayer requests, and then later they will post, “…blah, blah…God is good!” Usually the God is good part relates to something good happening. For example, a dear friend of mine had encephalitis. It was a very frightening time as we waited to see whether he would even survive–which looked doubtful at one point. Then we wondered if he would be mentally the same, which also looked a bit doubtful as he seemed to have lost his short-term memory. Hundreds of us rejoiced when it became clear that he was making a full recovery. “God is good,” many proclaimed on Facebook! And God is good. And it was beyond good - it was and is amazing and wonderful to see our friend recovering. And it is good to declare that! But what would we have said if our friend had been taken from this life? Would we still proclaim God’s goodness? Would God still be good in our eyes? Could we still post that on Facebook? Would we dare to say, “This has turned out horribly for our friend’s family. We did not want this outcome. We loved this man and did not want to see him leave such a gap. But we know that God is good.”

I guess that is true reformed theology put to the test. What do we do and say when things look really, really bad? Does it shake our faith in God? Do we still call him good? Has his character changed, or do we start to think it may have been questionable to begin with? Do we distance ourselves emotionally from God, suspecting that he does not have our best interests at heart, or worse, that he might not really love us as much as we had hoped?

Don’t get me wrong - anger and frustration at God are, in my opinion, allowable. God understands that we do not have the whole picture in mind. He knows that our circumstances, and even the things from his hand, can look really bad at times. The Psalmist openly asked God where in the heck he was?? Jesus wanted to understand WHY the father had forsaken him! But can we at the same time express our earthly perspective to God, “Lord this sucks right now,” and still say, “But you are good?”

It’s a challenge, and one that I make to myself every time I see someone post, “God is good,” because a spouse who was unemployed has found work; or a child recovered from a serious illness; or a financially strapped family got an unexpected check in the mail. If the opposite had occurred, could I and would I still say, “God is good all the time. All the time God is good?” I hope so.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 12th, 2009 at 1:28 pm and is filed under Biblical Thinking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.