Hey friends!
I totally got off track with blogger duties this winter/spring, my apologies. There's been quite a lot of ups and downs in my life over the last few months! I've been thinking a good deal about how even when our lives are unpredictable and constantly changing (for better or for worse), God stays the same and His grace is a truly solid foundation. He's always good. And what a fitting night to write a post about His goodness, no?
I think sometimes we forget about the magnitude of God's goodness. When the groans and cries of our world are especially loud, it's easy to get so tangled in pain that we forget who our King is. Unfathomable darkness can lead us to believe that God does not care enough to step in. And yet, here we are on Good Friday, the day that proved once and for all God's interest in us. It was on Calvary that Jesus proved His willingness to step into the utmost darkness. And for whom? For us, the lowliest of low. He's good.
Not only did Jesus pay the price to redeem us through His criminal's death, but He further proved His worthiness by overpowering death. Because He was the first and only sinless man to walk the earth, Satan had no claim on Him and the grave could not hold Him. He's oh, so good.
But what about when the darkness closes in? When atrocities are being committed in every corner of the earth, when children are shot in their schools and die of hunger and disease, when women's bodies are sold for spare change, when anxiety hits so hard you can't breathe, when out of nowhere a loved one is suddenly gone- how can we say that He is good, just, righteous then?
Yet the truth remains. God is good, and He is working. He does not keep bad things from happening to good people because there are no good people. And even still, He is providing a way for us anything-but-good people to be saved. He's rescuing people from the most hellish places through the obedience and actions of His children. He has never lost control of the universe, and He never will. His love never stops reaching for you, you. He's good.
And what patience our God has! We are incapable of fully getting rid of our sinful selfishness and desires until we are made completely new by Him, and in the meantime, His mercies are new for us each morning no matter how often or badly we fall short. His grace will always cover us and His love never ends. He is a Father who takes joy in heaping gifts and blessings on His children, even when we don't always see or appreciate them. He's good!
There's a song I've been stuck on lately called Taste and See by John Mark Pantana (listen to it here). It's full of such vivid images of the lavish richness of God's love and goodness! And it occurred to me that the truths in that song aren't true only some of the time- they're universal to every circumstance and everyone's lives, no matter what you're facing right now. Isn't that comforting?
You’re healing my heart when I’m drinking in You
Like jumping in the water in the summer of June
Soothing my soul when I’m feeding on You
Like eating Mama’s cooking in the afternoon
Now is the time to feast
Now is the time to feast
Taste and see
Oh taste and see
The Lord is good, good, good to me
He's good.
And lastly, let me leave you with some words of Mr. Beaver from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. He speaks of the coming of Aslan, the great Lion who in our world is known by another name.
"Safe? Who said anything about safe? 'Course He isn't safe. But He's good. He's the King, I tell you."
Our Lion is King. And He's good.
(P.S. For those of you who are not on my missions trip mailing list- the trip was actually moved to July! Just FYI :))