“What Good is God?” …
Dear one,
This is the question Phillip Yancey addresses in a volume by the same title. Published in 2010, when terrorists and attacks such as Mumbai were current in popular thought, he sought to grapple with that perennial question, What good is God? Predictably, in the dark aftermath of Uvalde, that question haunts us once again.
However, prior to the present Uvalde-horror, I had been giving thought to the word “good,” as I looked upon the larger world-setting from my narrow window: Ukraine, Afghanistan, Syria, Armenia, or the ethnic “cleansing” of the Uyghurs. Given this view, surely something has gone awry. And yet, if we ask, “What good is God?” we must also ask, “What good is humankind?” since most of the world’s horrors have been perpetrated by human beings.
Recently I took note of the daily frequency with which we use the word “good.” For instance: “be good”; “good night”; “all good”; “for goodness’ sake”; or even, “terribly good.” Each of these “good” expressions has its own, particular nuance; and yet, according to the dictionary, as an adjective “good” fits into seven broad categories: something approved, required, virtuous, pleasurable, thorough, valid, and of God.[1]
Of course, you won’t be surprised, it was the seventh category that drew my attention. That is, I had also been pondering the relationship between the word “good” and the word “God.” To my disappointment, in English at least, the two words do not share a common derivation. The former is related to the German word “gut” whereas the latter is derived from the German word “Gott.” And yet, although I had hoped for a common derivation, I realized that, with a view to our world, when we ask, Is God “good”? more often than not, we are asking, Where is God? If such a One is good, then why does this One not intervene amid human evils? Moreover, if God is not only good but loving, and yet chooses not to intervene (Deism?), must we conclude either an indifference or a lack of power?
Philip Yancey, taking his cue from C.S. Lewis, suggests that behind those visible realities we label “tragic” or “terrible” or “evil,” are other, invisible realities, which take root and emerge, sometimes slowly, amid the painful rubble: sympathy, humanitarian aid, altruism, sacrifice, and even love. They too are evident. From my perspective, those invisible realities are not seen through Pollyanna lenses; rather, they are seen as we redefine “good,” as Christian tradition has done for millennia. Annually we celebrate “Good Friday.” Surely that day reflects the triumph of evil hearts and minds, and yet behind and beneath that triumph was, in my view, the conquering of death by life, of sin by grace. If the question is, Where is God?, I would suggest, as Mother Teresa knew well, that our “good” God invites “good” people to join Him in fighting evil in whatever form and place—there He will be found. In accord with the Hebrew mind (Genesis 3), perhaps the expedient question, given the evils of our world, is: What will you and I do?
Pondering,
Stan
[1] New American Oxford Dictionary