Today is Thanksgiving Day and I had a really good time celebrating it with Sheryl's family! We rendezvoused at Ryan's Place in Los Banos, where we enjoyed a tasty traditional Thanksgiving meal. Lunch was followed by coffee and hot chocolate at Starbucks, where we also played Taboo (and Jessica and I opened birthday presents). Afterwards we went and saw the Muppets movie (which was a very fun movie!), had a simple dinner at Carl's Jr. (i.e., The Green Burrito), then came home to a warm house where we can settle in and enjoy a pleasant night together. I'm now all comforted-out in sweats on the couch with my laptop writing this blog, with Christmas music playing quietly in the background. I sit facing our Christmas tree, which we decorated earlier this week. I sit here knowing that God has been so good to me, and I feel blessed!
I've been reading through the book "Experiencing God," and one of the foundational principles this book requires that we accept is that God is by nature good and He desires the best for us. All my life I've easily accepted that God is good, as defined by my paradigm as a middle-class Christian white male in the United States. However, when I was presented with that principle and had to make a definite declaration that I believe God is always good, I had a hard time doing it. Sure, it's easy for me to say that God is good. But what about the woman sold into sex slavery? Or the boy who is forcibly made blind, then sent out by his "owners" to beg for money (who, being blind, will evoke a greater amount of generosity)? Or the children subject to slave labor so we can buy clothes and other items at bottom dollar? How is it I'm so lucky? Why is God looking so favorably on me? I wish I had a good answer. I can't declare that God is selectively good. He is either good, or He's not.
So what do you think? Is God good? Always? Really? Though I know the answer, my heart is unsettled about it, and I'm still wanting to be convinced. In my tiny mind, I can only say yes, I believe God is always good. I can't explain all the apparent inconsistencies and injustices in this world and will never understand why I was "selected" to be born to two wonderful Christian parents and live the privileged life I've lived, but I'm grateful for it and am full of THANKS today for it. And I can only be motivated to look beyond myself and use my good fortune to somehow reach out to help others. I guess I can't be content to just be thankful, but hope somehow I can provide a reason for others to be thankful, too.
I hope you're blessed today and have reason to be thankful. If you are, consider how you might pay that forward. Let's make life better for somebody today. Happy Thanksgiving!
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2 comments:
Its funny that your blog actually deals with the subject that I am currently dealing with in Restoration class. Is God Good All The Time? The answer is a resounding YES! I will tell you why. God did not choose for man to sin, yet there has always been sin in the world since Adam and Eve. Knowing that, and the fact that God gives us free will to sin or not to sin, it cannot be said that He revels in the fact that situations so horrid come about due to that sin, but what I believe is that He foreknowingly views each situation as an oppurtunity for someone somewhere to come to know Him somehow and further glorify the Kingdom of Heaven. That is a joyous thing. That woman may someday take those horrible things from her past and be able to reach out to millions in compassion with Christs love on her side. That boy may be able to one day show his strength by showing others the strength of Jesus in Him, which would further bring others to Christ. Due to our humaness there almost needs to be these horrible situations in order for harder hearts to be broken for God. Once those hearts are broken, then eyes are opened and a new love abounds. God IS good ALL the time. He never leaves that girl, he never leaves that boy, He never leaves any of us. He simply strengthens our wings so that we can teach others to fly. :) <3 Praise God that He loves us so much! :) <3
Thanks Scottishlass, well said. I understand the reasoning and this is very likely the same answer I would have given had someone else asked me. So I guess I'm trying to push a tree over that I know won't budge. In my heart of hearts I KNOW the answer is "Yes! God is ALWAYS good!"
Still I wonder how well that would have been received by all the mothers (and fathers) of baby boys at the time of Jesus' birth (Matthew 2:16-18)? It would have taken a bigger person than me to accept that my precious baby boy was killed because The Christ had potentially been born. I wonder how many parents turned from God and were among the scorners as Jesus hung on the cross, thinking "I got mine, now you get yours!" I can only hope that I would have dealt with the loss and followed Christ despite my deep loss. But I do know of others who have endured great loss and risen above it in greater faith (e.g., Steven Curtis Chapman and his family, Horatio Spafford, etc.). These are the examples I look to, and trust in their experience of God's comfort in great times of sorrow. If they can declare God's goodness still, it gives me a tangible example that I can hold on to that is beyond my own understanding.
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