Friday Thoughts... The Goodness of God

Lately I've been thinking a lot about God's goodness. I'm so grateful God's goodness is not dependent on how I feel. I'm thankful his goodness and character are not tied to my circumstances. In fact, I'm glad his goodness is not tied to ANY circumstances.

Imagine if it was. Think about it, we're rolling along in life enjoying success after success - God must be good right?! Then one day - BAM! IT hits the fan, life gets hard - as it inevitably does - and then we think, why is God no longer good? What a rollercoaster ride! I see why people choose to be athiests. I mean, why go through life trying to work through that mind-bender when the easier thing to do would be not even believe in the first place.

Lets face it - THIS IS THE QUESTION - IS GOD GOOD?

I mean really, how can God be good in the kind of world we live in. A world full of suffering, death, pain, etc. Where is the goodness in that?

That's the hang-up - the whole suffering thing.

I read a lot of techie-type message boards. (Geeky I know) Either way, sometimes I find myself in the political/religion forums. It's very interesting to see the many points of view about God, Jesus and his followers. It's good reading. I constantly see where people write sarcastically about how Christians will always say "God's goodness/loving Father" and so forth. They laugh and mock statements like this because they seem ridiculous. They question why would a loving God allow a 14 year-old girl to be sold into sex-slavery and raped many times a day for years.

I get it. It's a valid question.

So how can I say God is good?

How can you?

Or would you?

I just don't understand. And there it is.

I don't understand.

I mean, how can the created understand the creator? What if we knew that on the other side of this reality we call life was something so amazing, so wonderful, so comforting and Holy that we cannot wrap our minds around it. Maybe after death there is a PEACE so great that makes leaving this world of suffering worth it. Maybe eternity really is real, and our time on earth is just a fraction of a fraction of a second in the grand scheme of things. None of us know for sure.

We can chose to have faith and believe there is a greater purpose, a plan to redeem the suffering and pain. We can also choose to believe that the trials and hard times are meant to create a deeper character and strength we can call on in the future. The hard times grow us in ways the good ones never do.

OR, we can choose to believe that all this is random - luck, a coincidence. Suffering sucks and there really is no point, we are alone and there is no "greater" purpose in it. No one is looking over us, no greater being has a vested interest in us. We're just here for our 70, 80 maybe 90 years - and that's it.

I look at the story of John Walsh, the guy from America's Most Wanted. His son Adam was kidnapped and beheaded in 1981. Through this horrible, horrible experience John vowed that no other family should have to go through what his did.

The pain, the suffering and the anger did not destroy him. Walsh went on to create and host a show that has been responsible for putting THOUSANDS of sick people behind bars. No telling how many lives Walsh is responsible for saving.

For me personally, I choose to believe God is good - that he has a plan, and even though I don't always get to understand his plan - He's still good. My faith in his goodness gives me hope - it gives me strength to keep moving forward when IT hits the fan.

I leave you with this scene from Signs with Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix.

Gibson's character to Phoenix ::

People break down into two groups. When they experience something lucky, group number one sees it as more than luck, more than coincidence. They see it as a sign, evidence, that there is someone up there, watching out for them. Group number two sees it as just pure luck. Just a happy turn of chance. I'm sure the people in group number two are looking at those fourteen lights in a very suspicious way. For them, the situation is a fifty-fifty. Could be bad, could be good. But deep down, they feel that whatever happens, they're on their own. And that fills them with fear. Yeah, there are those people. But there's a whole lot of people in group number one. When they see those fourteen lights, they're looking at a miracle. And deep down, they feel that whatever's going to happen, there will be someone there to help them. And that fills them with hope. See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, that sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Is it possible that there are no coincidences? 

Thoughts?