God is Good

I’m beginning to think we as Christians have developed a basic vocabulary problem that is interfering with our ability to proclaim the glory of God.  It goes something like this:

“God is good” we announce.

 “Oh Yeah?  Why does He allow suffering and hardship if He’s so “good?” Replies the world.

  “Umm, umm, we don’t really know,” We finish lamely, usually after some even lamer attempts at explaining away hardship by describing how God uses suffering for good, or people cause suffering with their sinfulness, or any number of other fairly valid, but horribly incomplete explanations.  No answer I’ve ever heard is really adequate to meet the agonizing “why?” that always comes with tragedy, so why do we meet the world’s skepticism with hollow explanations, instead of pointing out the basic difference in what they mean and what we mean?

               When I say “God is good,” I don’t actually mean it in the exact same way that I say my two year old is a good girl.  I don’t mean that I’m pleased by God’s actions or that I’m delighted that He’s made such good choices today.  I’m not expressing my assessment of His behavior.  I mean God is good like water on a hot day is good, or food when I’m hungry or medicine when I’m sick is good.  I mean that whether my circumstances are pleasant or unpleasant, glorious or horrendous, God is healing, restorative, beautiful, and that which makes life worth living.  When I feel cut off from God, it is difficult not because it lessens my belief in God’s goodness, but because it lessens my experience of that goodness.

There’s plenty of reason and need to address the problem of suffering, even though we’ll probably never sound the definitive word, the “aha” explanation of it all.  I just wish we could quit thinking that God’s goodness is somehow connected to whether or not He’s living up to our expectations.  It is precisely when life is difficult that I experience the goodness of God the most, just as it is only when I’m thirsty that I really understand how good water can be.  The question of suffering is a valid one, but not all that connected to God’s goodness.  Now maybe if suffering is raised in a conversation about His kindness, or His love, it has more relevance.

  Can we take more time to acknowledge though, that goodness, like holiness, is an accurate description of God’s eternal character that has nothing to do with how much I, or anyone else, is benefiting from it today?  How can we find ways to proclaim the goodness of God without getting sidetracked into arguments that miss the point?  We have to keep trying, because God is good all the time, and all the time…