The Goodness of God
The Goodness of God
Ronald W. Mitchell
This past Monday we witnessed the unimaginable and horrific images that occurred at a July 4th parade near Chicago. A young man who is intent on evil, secures weapons, devises an elaborate plan, mounts the top of a building on main street USA, murders 7 men and women and wounds dozens. Two of the dead are a couple, father and mother to a 2-year-old who somehow survives the hail of gunfire. And in a moment, that two-year-old is made an orphan.
I was in my mid-twenties when, after serving a church as an Associate Pastor, I was asked to be the pastor of a small, struggling church. Those days in my first church were learning days and trying days. I was tested on many levels and failed in many ways. One of the ways in which I was tested early was in the arena of theology or doctrine. To put it another way, the things I thought about God, the things I taught about God, were put to the test in the day-to-day stuff of life. One of my discoveries was that at times, my answers or counsel for the harsh realities some of my congregation were living through, seemed long on theory but short on meaning and substance.
One of those truths that was tested early and often was relative to the goodness of God.
One couple in the church, Steve and Jan, was doing their best to live for God and raise their boys to follow after God. The oldest son, about the time he 16, was in full blown rebellion. Constantly in and out of trouble, he continually brought sorrow and brokenness to Steve and Jan’s hearts. In 2 or 3 nightmarish years mom and dad aged a decade. The younger boy was their glimmer of hope. Compliant, courteous, and passionate for God. Then one afternoon they get a call that the youngest had been hit by a car. He suffered significant trauma to the brain, his left leg shattered and doctors pessimistic about the outcome. How could one family pass through so much? How could one person’s faith survive?
How many of you have discovered that life can be uncertain? Events that can leave us absolutely broken, can come in the blink of an eye. In the shadows of devastating circumstances, we strain to see the goodness of God.
Let’s first think about a definition of God’s goodness. By the goodness of God I mean: God is the ultimate standard and source of all that is good. He alone is the ultimate measure/judge of what is good. Second: all that God does is good.
Psalm 100:5 For the LORD is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.
Psalm 106:1 Praise the LORD! Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.
Psalm 119:68 You are good and do only good; teach me your decrees.
Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
The first time my wife Elaine and I met Demetria was a warm September afternoon in her office. As we were invited into her office we were immediately introduced to her boys. No, they were not physically present, but the numerous pictures prominently displayed in her office and a simple, get-to-know-you question “are these your sons?” was all the permission this proud mom needed to tell us about her sons. One is 18 and the younger, 15. Her love and devotion was expressed in her broad smiles and in her affirming words. The oldest, Destin, was in his first semester at college.
The next time I saw Demetria was on a Tuesday in late November. Same office but a very different Demetria. I learned she was carrying the unbearable weight of a mother’s grief. Destin, ten days shy of celebrating his nineteenth birthday, did not wake up the morning of Nov. 13th. His college roommate couldn’t rouse him; a call went out to 9-1-1. But he was gone. Doctors discovered excessive fluid around his heart and believe it was related. I don’t think that was much comfort for his mother.
AND WE ARE LEFT TO WONDER, IS GOD GOOD?
How we understand these characteristics of God is critically important. Why do I say that? Because for the most part, it will determine how we relate to God or if we want to relate to God.
At the core of all this is trust. Can I trust that God is good? Can I trust that God is good for me? That He knows AND DOES what is good?
Perhaps we can identify with the brother, himself tested by many seasons of pain, who said, “God sometimes seems like that neighbor who keeps borrowing your stuff and either forgetting to return it or bringing it back damaged, with no explanation. You wonder how much more of your stuff you’ll entrust to him.”
There’s a great dialogue between God and a man by the name of Habakkuk that could easily be your dialogue; my dialogue. It’s the very real struggle to understand the tension between what I am experiencing and what God is asking of me. Why should I trust God when He seems like a contradiction?
Habakkuk 1:2-4
2 How long, O LORD, must I call for help? But you do not listen! “Violence is everywhere!” I cry, but you do not come to save.
3 Must I forever see these evil deeds? Why must I watch all this misery? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight.
4 The law has become paralyzed, and there is no justice in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, so that justice has become perverted.
Wow. Read that again. You’d almost think that Habakkuk is a contemporary of ours and writing this in our day. For him, life seemed upside down where wrong seems right and right seems wrong. And justice, well, there is no justice.
He presses God for answers and note how God responds.
5 The LORD replied, “Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it.
6 I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people. They will march across the world and conquer other lands.
7 They are notorious for their cruelty and do whatever they like.
8 Their horses are swifter than cheetahs and fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their charioteers charge from far away. Like eagles, they swoop down to devour their prey.
9 “On they come, all bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind, sweeping captives ahead of them like sand.
10 They scoff at kings and princes and scorn all their fortresses. They simply pile ramps of earth against their walls and capture them!
11 They sweep past like the wind and are gone. But they are deeply guilty, for their own strength is their god.”
God’s answers seem illogical; God is a contradiction. Habakkuk appeals for reason. First God won’t answer and now He says “wait.” The story is still being written. Be patient; it will all work out in the end. But that is easier said than done. Isn’t it true that the future is not as much a concern for those who are struggling to survive today?
Often the ‘why’s of life’ beg for answers that do not come easily or quickly. So, what do you do?
In God’s second response we discover the key for Habakkuk. Habakkuk’s discovery is our way through tough times. Look at it and pay close attention to verse 4.
Habakkuk 2
2 Then the LORD said to me, “Write my answer plainly on tablets, so that a runner can carry the correct message to others.
3 This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.
4 “Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked. But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God.
And what is faith? FAITH DEFINED: Resting so completely in the character of God – in the goodness of God -- that you trust him even when He seems or feels untrustworthy.
WHAT WE SEE IS NOT THE WHOLE STORY
Circumstances are constantly changing around us, but the character of God is constant and consistent. Even amid difficulty, trials, and hardship, God’s character remains constant. His goodness is present on the mountain and his goodness is present in the valley. His goodness is present when the diagnosis is reassuring and when the diagnosis is shocking. There is more to the story God is writing with your life and this is the theme of chapter 3. Our awesome and mighty God will not be stopped. His purposes will not be frustrated. The heavens and the earth cannot contain Him:
· Mountains give way to his power; verse 6
· Ocean currents yield to his command; verses 8, 10
Habakkuk 3
17 Though the fig tree should not blossom, And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail, the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold, And there be no cattle in the stalls, 18 Yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. 19 The Lord GOD is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds' feet, And makes me walk on my high places.
Can you admit God knows what you don’t? God sees what you don’t? God is able to do what He plans and purposes to do, including the orchestration of your life story. God can redeem what evil intends for your destruction. He will make a way when there seems to be no way.
Philip Yancey, in his book Finding God in Unlikely Places, shares some intimate details of his visits to some of the world’s most infamous prisons. Prisons with no bathroom facilities and where the most inhuman conditions imaginable will break the strongest of men. Yet these prisons hold some of the most joyful and most free people you will ever meet.
Like Pablo. Originally imprisoned for taking part in a student strike against a repulsive government, he plummeted to despair and deep-seated bitterness. A scientist by training, Pablo could find no consolation or hope in all he recalled from his university training. One day he happened upon a book… the only book he ever saw in the prison. It was a BIBLE. But this self-proclaimed atheist concluded, “at least it will help the time pass.”
He started reading. After a few months he became convinced of the truth of the Bible and decided to become a Christian. 3 years pass and Pablo is granted a pardon. But every week you will find him still at the prison. He comes as a free man to announce freedom to those held in bonds. Asked why he would choose to spend so much time in a place so dark and so full of despair and hopelessness, Pablo responds, “that’s not what I see. This is where life began for me. I recognize the darkness, but I see something different.”
Like Habakkuk, your feelings will declare that God has abandoned you, has left you alone to find your way out of the dark and desolate place you may be walking through. Declare the truth over yourself. God, I choose trust. What I see is not the whole story. I believe you are writing my story and it is full of redemption. Your story for me is not death but full of life and colored by your goodness.
