Heidi’s Story

Heidi’s Story

Part 3 of the series, “God is Good”…

In this post, I share a remarkable story about the goodness of God. If you missed the last two posts, start there. One Unshakable Core Belief, and Mystery: The Unresolved Category

experience God's loveTo recap, it’s hard to reconcile the goodness of God with suffering in human life. We may start to think God isn’t doing a good job of being God. But He has given us solid reasons to trust in His goodness and asks us to embrace the category of mystery. Yet, if we’re in the wilderness of unanswered questions, the Holy Spirit can still bring the presence of God into our pain and suffering. When we experience His goodness, we may not understand the “whys” of our circumstances, but His peace remains. Experience is the operative word.

So here’s the story of my second cousin Heidi…Continue reading

Mystery – The Unresolved Category

Mystery – The Unresolved Category

Last week, I posed a troubling question: Does God care about our earthly woes? Or as author Brent Curtis wrote, are we trapped in a story that “uses up characters like trailer courts in tornado season?”

How can we know that God is good?

Let’s get down to the juggernaut of the question. We have legitimate questions about God’s goodness: Why tragedies? Why injustices? Why do innocents suffer—like children blasted with chlorine gas in Syria? Even small things can galvanize our doubts.

We say—if God will give us answers, then we’ll trust Him…

We want Him to come down with all His goodness and answer our questions with puzzle-like exactness. The puzzle would look like this:Continue reading

One Unshakable Core Belief

One Unshakable Core Belief

Something needs to be solid in your life if you are going to grow spiritually. It’s the belief that God is good.

saying grace - God is goodMaybe you said it at dinnertime in a childhood version of grace. The notion comes up in songs at church. We find it in Scripture. But people sorely question it when bad things happen. Still, every person has to resolve whether or not they will agree with this one core belief…

G   o   d        i   s        g   o  o   d.

How can God be good?Many reject this belief wholesale. Their hearts cry, “Evidence! Look at the suffering in the world and what God has allowed! How can there even be a God, much less a good God?”

Author Brent Curtis wrote about God as the playwright in Job’s story, and how similarly, “the story we find ourselves living in often seems to use up characters like trailer courts in tornado season.” He goes on to say, “I am filled with not a little outrage as well as an anxiety that wants to ask for a much smaller part of the play than Job had, or possibly even a role in a more off-Broadway production that I could help direct. You know, something like God Helps Brent Pursue Money, Wealth, and Fame While Living a Quiet Life.

Is the good in suffering?“There is something frightening about being in a play in which the director may allow the plot to descend on my character…causing deep emotional or even physical harm.”[i]

Is God good? 

Countless individuals keep this mystery as a perpetual, unanswerable question. It’s on the back burner, simmering with torment. For believers, it undermines their faith with an increasing undertow of skepticism.

good people have it easyYet amazingly, some people of faith wholeheartedly embrace the truth that God is good.

suffering people believe God is good

Harriet Tubman

You might be tempted to think these folks live cushy lives, attend prosperous churches, have never fought in a war, and have compliant children. But more often than not, they have endured unspeakable suffering and injustices. Continue reading