If God is good, where is He?

 

Psalm 3:5

"I lie down and sleep; I wake again because the LORD sustains me."

Have you ever been asked, "If God is good, where is He?"

 This is something I have been thinking through lately. I have family and friends who have recently gone through cancer diagnoses and treatments, the loss of loved ones, and other hardships that can be encountered as one navigates life. Two of my friends are reflecting on Psalm 3:5 as they are navigating their difficult circumstances. A natural reaction to unexpected hardship is to ask the question, "If God is good, where is He when life isn't good?"

At its core, I understand this struggle. Watching someone you care about hurt is hard to reconcile with a belief in a God who claims to love. Seeing violence and disasters on the news makes it difficult to believe that God is in complete control. Even just the simple struggle of wondering why God doesn't just appear in the sky to remove any doubt, instead of wanting us to search Him out in the ways He has already revealed Himself. It can all seem overwhelmingly difficult. I have heard it put this way, "If there is a God, either He isn't all-powerful or He isn't perfectly good". This is something that a lot of people wrestle with and will continue to do so on this side of heaven. David's response to his hardship with the reminder that God sustains him in his sleeping and his waking, I think, gives us a clue about the answer to these questions.

I think we can approach an answer from two directions. First is dealing with pain. It seems God allows pain because He is waiting to end it once and for all. Does He heal now? Yes. There are countless testimonies of people being healed after asking for it, but there are also countless stories of people not being healed after asking for it. This is because healings and other miracles are used as a glimpse of the Kingdom of Heaven when it is fully established at Christ's return. One author described this as getting to eat the cake batter while waiting for the cake.

God doesn't cause our suffering, but He does work in spite of it. I think of those who have gone through the relational hurts of infidelity and divorce being able to come alongside someone else who is going through the same thing. I think of people who have not been healed of their illnesses and can compassionately walk with others who have recently been diagnosed and are overwhelmed with the next steps. This is called redemptive suffering. No one wants this, but through their time of clinging and calling out to God, they are able to see His hand in the midst of it.

Another aspect of pain is that it points out a problem. Pain lets me know when I start stepping on sharp objects so that I can move to a better path. Pain reveals issues. CS Lewis said, 

"Pain is His [God's] megaphone to rouse a deaf world." 

Pain is a reminder that we live in a world that is out of order. The problem isn't that God isn't doing anything. He has done the work and is patiently waiting for as many people to turn to Him as possible. We might think that if He provided more appearances and miracles, more would believe, but look at Jesus. He taught, healed, and rose from the grave, and scripture still tells us that some believed and some didn't (Matthew 28:17). Just like how we avoid the dentist or doctor until something hurts, sometimes we don't turn to God until there is pain. He doesn't cause it. He doesn't take pleasure in pain. He has a day set to end it once and for all.

Finally, the second approach is remembering who is in charge. I think that there are so many people who set stipulations. "I won't believe unless He cures all illnesses or world hunger," (a real stipulation that has been made), or other stipulations like that. Could He do it? Yes, and He is going to, but when we make demands of God, we are saying in some sense that He is accountable to us. These statements make God our subordinate. This approach does more than cause us to view God as a cosmic vending machine; it makes Him out to be a being looking for approval and love. When people view God in this way, then He is nothing more than someone who is trying to give the right pitch in order to get us on board.

I think our approach to God needs to be like David in Psalm 8, "What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you would care for him?" A great song today that depicts this is Who Am I by Casting Crowns. We have to remember that God is God, and we aren't. That might not sound surprising, and yet sometimes we have to be reminded of it. It is easy for us to demand that God's goodness has to be expressed through our continual comfort. This goes beyond being provided with another day; this expects continual health and lavish living. This is a disordered expectation. One author made the point this way:

 "The biggest difference between you and God is that God doesn't sometimes think He is you." -Pete Greig

To believe that God exists isn't to believe in an all-powerful being who just thinks that I am the coolest in existence and I deserve His very best. It means that there is an all-powerful and all-knowing God who is at work, which means that there will be times He allows things or doesn't allow things that I thought were in my best interest. If God exists, that means His perspective, design, and will are all greater than my own.

Can I challenge you to trust? Trust that God, if He truly is all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving, and all-just, has a greater perspective and plan than we ever could. We live in such distrusting times where anyone in authority does not automatically have our trust, but instead they have to earn our favor and trust by pleasing us. That is not how God operates. He will do what He pleases. He has His plan in place. He seeks His will above our own. Yet, while not being accountable to us, He desires what is best for us and, in His omnipotence, is the only one who can accomplish it. I like how Jackie Hill Perry put it:

“If God is holy, then He can’t sin. If God can’t sin, then He can’t sin against me. If He can’t sin against me, shouldn’t that make Him the most trustworthy being there is?”

If God is truly all of the "all..." descriptors I mentioned earlier, then that makes Him the best candidate for calling the shots in my life. So when I encounter disaster in my life, God's allness makes Him the most important person to have in my corner, especially when I have questions and hurts. This looks like reciting Psalm 3:5 to help us remember to praise God for the seemingly small things that I take for granted, like waking up for another day. 

Where is God? He is near, waiting for us to lean on Him and call to Him as we wait for Him to make all things new. He is at work even in pain, and there will be a day when pain and death will be finished. God is good, period. His goodness spills out into our broken world, and He is finishing His work to redeem it and make all things new. Instead of demanding constant goodness in a broken world, we need to be people who identify goodness even in the midst of hurt and brokenness. For leaders and pastors, this starts with us. We cannot expect the people in our churches to live with this mindset unless it comes from us first. We cannot be the leaders who just rail against the bad that we see. We need to be the first to identify the good and the beautiful. 

Just like any habit, this will take work. It doesn't have to be deep or profound, just honest. David's prompting for himself wasn't a reminder that he is God's anointed king or that he was a giant slayer, but simply that God allowed him to have another day. How do we navigate the hard and bad circumstances of life? I think it is by remembering the fact that we are not owed good things, but that God gives them anyway. God, who allows rain to fall on the righteous and unrighteous (Matthew 5:45), doesn't owe us anything, but He generously gives. What if we practiced searching for the goodness of God at all times, and especially when we experience hard circumstances? Don't be fake or disingenuous, but honestly look at your life. If God truly gives EVERY good thing (James 1:17), then we have many more beautiful things in our lives that we can count. 

What do you think it would look like if followers of Jesus lived with eagerness to identify the good and the beautiful? Not people who don't grieve brokenness or deny that it exists, but people who can identify goodness even in the midst of pain. I think we could repeat the words of Paul that whether we have an abundance or have nothing, we can be content because we have Jesus (Philippians 4:13 paraphrased). How can you start today? Start by asking God to reveal His goodness to you. There is no shame in admitting that you can't see it (just the other day it took me not being able to start my car to get me complaining because it is easy to be distracted by even the smallest thing. I am still learning to identify beauty in the midst of brokenness, hardship, and even inconvenience). When we find something that we see His goodness in, then we can share it with someone. This defiant joy can transform our hearts and can shine a beacon of hope to a world that is thirsty for finding good. 

Where do you see God's goodness today?