Monday, September 12, 2005
God is GOOD!
Miscellanies On The Gospel had a great post on Saturday about "The Pleasurable and Unpleasurable Goodness of God" His point, put simply and directly is that goodness, particularly God's goodness is not constrained by our conceptions
Sometimes I wonder if the line we cross when we become a "mature" Christian is the line demarcated in Christ's prayer at Gethsemane -- "Not my will, but Thine." We so desperately want to understand things -- "Why did this happen?" -- "How could God...?" But we never can have such understanding. Do your pets understand how a can opener works? NO -- but they understand that good comes from it. That's all we need to understand, that good comes from God, and we must learn to be satisfied that such is all we know.
We are intelligent beyond what is good for us. We need to tame that intelligence to serve one whose intelligence makes ours look nonexistent. Miscellanies put it this way
God IS good.
He is the same good God when we are having bad days, bad weeks, bad months, bad years, or bad decades. When hurricanes, tsunamis, terrorist threats, wars, and economic crashes are at work, God is at work also. And where God is at work, His goodness is at work. The external circumstances of events, situations, and incidents is no criterion at all for determining whether or not God is good. The cross destroys such a paradigm.What's more, if God is good in all circumstances, and God is on control, then all that happens will accomplish God's good.
The gospel teaches us then that inside the most wretched of experiences, God is good. When a wife is dying of cancer, God is good. When a wife is giving normal and healthy birth to a normal and healthy child, God is good. When a husband is falling into pornography or adultery, God is good. And when a husband is excelling in his employment and making a lot of money, God is good. When our children continue in persistent disobedience, God is good. When our children are obedient, God is good. God is good.....all the time.
Sometimes I wonder if the line we cross when we become a "mature" Christian is the line demarcated in Christ's prayer at Gethsemane -- "Not my will, but Thine." We so desperately want to understand things -- "Why did this happen?" -- "How could God...?" But we never can have such understanding. Do your pets understand how a can opener works? NO -- but they understand that good comes from it. That's all we need to understand, that good comes from God, and we must learn to be satisfied that such is all we know.
We are intelligent beyond what is good for us. We need to tame that intelligence to serve one whose intelligence makes ours look nonexistent. Miscellanies put it this way
Let the gospel reorient our thinking on God's goodness then. And let us put forth a hand of mighty diligence in meditating and experiencing that goodness especially when things are displeasurable for us! For those are the toughest times to see that light, aren't they? Oh, it's so easy to rejoice in God's goodness when we feel the pleasure of that goodness. But oh, how easy it becomes to complain against God's goodness, questioning Him, putting Him on the witness stand, when we feel the displeasure of that same goodness we once rejoiced in.The best way to begin that process of taming our intellect is to develop the habit of gratitude. Have you thanked God for the unpleasantness in your life? Start there, set aside the big stuff for now, that will come as the habit develops, just try thanking Him for that ingrate that cut you off for the parking space, then go from there.
God IS good.
