Something needs to be solid in your life if you are going to grow spiritually. It’s the belief that God is good.
Maybe 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.
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.
“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.
Yet amazingly, some people of faith wholeheartedly embrace the truth that 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
