uncircumstanced goodness

I have a big pet peeve right now.

In the past few weeks, I’ve heard many friends proclaim “God is good” with smiles on their faces. Which should be good, right? It should cause me to praise with them and celebrate with them. But…I am annoyed. Annoyed at the fact that their statement of God’s goodness comes in the same breath after saying what good things are happening in their lives.

“I didn’t fail my class, God is so good.”

Really? Is the immensity and incomprehensibility of God’s vast goodness riding on whether you fail a class or not?

Maybe it’s just that I’m not impressed. It’s easy to say God is good when you’re happy. Just the other night I was thinking to myself, “I love my friends, I love my job, I’m excited for SBA next year. God is so good.” God is really good when life is good. Like my friend who gets to move into an apartment with her sister, or my friend who’s getting married soon. Life is good, God is good. We say it in the same breath. When we get exactly what we prayed for, when we are not disappointed. It’s so easy to praise Him when we like our circumstances.

And when the circumstances turn sour, when we are disappointed and scared. What do we say? God where are you? What are you doing? How could you allow this? You’re supposed to be good!

Isn’t this the same God to whom we are asking these questions that we just deemed “good” a few months ago so confidently? He is the same, isn’t He? Maybe I’m being too critical of people, but I honestly think to myself when people connect God’s goodness with their life situation, Ok, I want to know if you would still say so readily that He is good if He takes it all away.

It is a sobering thought, and I’m not sure I could do it.

I’m tired of people who follow Him because life is good. Maybe it’s because I’m in a stage of life when so many exciting things are happening to us all. Marriage. Love. Travel. Change. Jobs. God is pouring out gifts to us, and we see these good gifts and attribute them to their good Giver. Which isn’t wrong.

I guess what I want to see is someone who is stuck. Someone who is hurting, who is lonely, who is helpless. I want to see someone who has gone through hell…who is still going through hell…look me with bloodshot, tired eyes and say with full confidence, “God is good.”

I want to see someone who has been hurt and rejected in every way, who has barely had the strength to get up each morning, someone with an empty cup, grab my hands and stare into my eyes with her own and say, “God is good” as if she has literally tasted it with her mouth.

I want to see someone who hasn’t come out of their pit of despair yet. I want to see someone who doesn’t know if they’ll ever get out, someone who could very well be stuck in their plight forever tell me without a doubt , and without a hope that they’ll ever be free on this earth that their God is good.

It is not wrong to praise Him after something very, very good happens. But our God’s goodness, His love, is so much grander than His ability to give good gifts to us.

I have been realizing more and more that my whole life could go wrong from now until I die. I could be Job for the rest of my life. Sores. Loneliness. Pain. Until the day I die. And my God would still be good.

Because what makes my God good is not His gifts, it’s not how He tends to surprise us with amazing circumstances and opportunities that fit our desires just right, it’s not how sometimes He allows us to pass classes we didn’t think we’d pass.

What makes God good is the cross. How He gave us His only Son. How we are undeservedly redeemed. That is all we need. That is the Love that we question when we are alone. He has proven His goodness & love with His Son’s work on the cross, and we no longer need to question ever again.

So God, You will be good on the happiest day of my life.

You will be good when I am crawling across the floor, limp on the ground before You.

And You are good right now. As starving children are dying and as people are falling in love. You are good because circumstances do not define Your goodness.

You are far better than that.