“God is good even when we don’t understand”
There are certain things that are utterly predictable, to a fault. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. The tide comes in and then goes back out. We speak of God’s goodness, and someone takes offense...
Believe me, that last item fits in the list just as consistently as the first two. Each time I write of the specific goodness of God, I receive a great many positive responses. But inevitably I also receive at least one negative response.
It will go something like this: “Well how nice for God to be so good to you! You must be so special, seeing as how other people are hurting so bad!”
I do not answer back unkindly; I understand that many people are indeed hurting, and I feel for them. But the response itself shows a huge flaw in logic, and in a person’s understanding of the goodness of God.
One of the rules of logic broken by the response above is stated as follows: “Evidence should be stated as fairly and completely as possible.” Another one is, “Emotion is not an acceptable substitute for proof.” If emotion were removed from the equation, and if all the evidence were fairly weighed, some things could be clearly discerned. Things that, by the way, provide for a proper understanding of the goodness of God.
To begin with, people who respond with the view I referenced above are failing to consider the larger picture (all of the evidence, stated as failry and completely as possible). God may send a particular, undeniable blessing to me today while another is hurting, but next week they may be receiving the undeniable blessing while I am hurting. Should either of us, in our time of blessing, fail to say “thank you,” or fail to be grateful? Should either of us, in our time of hurt, be envious of those who are not hurting?
The larger issue in the faulty view I referenced is the underlying assumption that God must always make everything turn out the way we want in every case, or he is not good to us.
But Scripture decimates that view.
Job went from the mountain top of human experience to the very depths of despair, and then back to the mountaintop. At the beginning of His trial he said “blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). In the midst of his trial he said “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him” (Job 13:15).
After his trial he said, “I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be
withholden from thee.” (Job 42:2).
Paul the apostle healed others, and then received a thorn in the flesh that God refused to remove, even after he asked God three times to do so. Paul answered “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
We live in a fallen world, a world of disease and hurt and war and pain, and mankind’s sin caused it all. For God to always make everything turn out the way we want in every case would mean that he has removed all of the effects of our sin. That is something he will not do; it is those very diseases and hurts and wars and pains that let us know in the most unmistakable terms that we need him to begin with.
What he will do from time to time is step in and make himself known by doing something very special for us. A specific answered prayer, a blessing that only he could have given.
But He will not always do so. God is not a puppet, or a divine ATM, he is the Creator, and we are the creature.
If you are seeing the tangible visible blessing of God, it is appropriate to praise him for those blessings. If you currently are not, it is appropriate to praise him just for who he is, and just for what he already did for all of us on Calvary.
Bo Wagner is pastor of the Cornerstone Baptist Church in Mooresboro, N.C., a widely traveled evangelist, and author of several books, including a kid’s fiction book about the Battle of Chickamauga, “Broken Brotherhood.” He can be emailed at 2knowhim@cbc-web.org.