Dear one,
Within this space, undoubtedly I have shared with you that line I first truly heard upon one of my early visits to Malawi: “God is good and God is good all the time.” When I first heard those words from those who, in my eyes, live greatly impoverished lives, I needed to pause: “Really,” I thought, “you’re able to affirm the goodness of God, even though malaria knocks regularly upon your door; even though every day you must walk for hours to work; even though eating red meat is a once-a-year, Christmas treat?”
Yesterday, upon receiving a call from our urologist, I had reason to utter those same words: “God is good.” Several days earlier I’d had an outpatient procedure, and to hear the word “benign” was indeed good, thanks-giving news. However, upon experiencing yet again the goodness of our Creator, I began to wonder: Would I have uttered “God is good” if I’d heard the word “malignant”? My sincere hope is that I would have affirmed: He is good, even if I had received a “bad” report. Moreover, I then had occasion to recall several who are dear to us, who are faithfully living the “bad” word, the “malignant” prognosis; for they, like many Malawians, insist that “God is good,” in spite of their poverty.
But as I wondered, with clarity I recognized and admitted that the “goodness of God” is not dependent upon me; that my life-experience cannot be the measure of goodness, and this for two reasons. First, if God is not good—which would “reasonably” lead to a denial of His existence—then we’d better pack-it-in, for there would be no hope. We’d then be subject to a malevolent, capricious Evil. And secondly, the world we know and experience has too many variables, too many intangibles, too many unknowns for my fair-weathered thoughts and feelings to be the basis of “goodness.”
For years, with a deep, heart-felt ambivalence, I’ve read the psalms attributed to David: I am grateful for the powerful, honest, and often raw emotion with which he wrote; and yet, I’ve struggled with his dark, imprecatory moments, when he lauded his integrity and damned his enemies. That said, even at his darkest, he constantly affirmed:
“You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you … [You are] my chosen portion and my cup … [In you] I have a goodly heritage” (Psalm 16:2-6).
Irrespective our present political, economic, and/or health situation, we do well to remember: God is good.
Remembering,
Stan