The LORD replied, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, Yahweh, before you. For I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.”
-Exodus 33:19, NLT
Have you ever struggled with the question of whether God is good?
Maybe you wonder about God’s goodness when considering babies dying from congenital diseases? Maybe you wonder how a sovereign God could allow things like the Holocaust to happen? Perhaps you struggle with the thought that a God good would allow child predators to live to a ripe old age yet not stop them from harming innocent children?Or perhaps it is more personal?
How can a good God allow my cheater to seemingly prosper while he or she has done such awful things to me (and my children)? This experience feels like anything BUT coming from a good God.
This post is not a post about truly answering those questions.
Instead, I want to call to your attention the real question behind the question regarding God’s goodness. We are not so much asking about God’s goodness. We are asking if we can trust God.Is God good? = Can I trust Him?
I am not interested in putting my trust in a cosmic abuser. My heart is not something I want to entrust to someone I deem truly bad. So, of course, I would find it difficult to trust God if I believed He was not good.How do we overcome the tension of our lived experience of injustice and God’s seemingly indifference to our abuse?
In my experience, it takes two things: 1) acceptance of mystery and 2) willingness to see God in faith from a different perspective.
First, dealing with the tension of these things takes an acceptance of mystery.
Humans have tried to resolve the question of suffering in the world for thousands of years. The question of God’s sovereign existence and suffering’s existence is not a question that will be resolved by me. Brighter and wiser men have tried and failed. Plus, I do not think this tension is a tension that can be resolved. Like many truly spiritual things, it is a mystery. Two seemingly incompatible things exist at the same time:God is sovereign and injustices are happening.
Yes, I understand the classical answer that the injustices are committed or are the consequences of sinful humans. However, I think that answer only satisfies to a point. My hope in accepting this mystery is the hope that one day my good God will set all things right. I understand this world is all sorts of “wrong” and am willing to accept on faith my good God has plans to one day set it right. It takes humility to accept the mystery. However, I do not think we can have relationship with God without humility as we will push God away by our prideful judgment otherwise (see I Peter 5:5).Second, dealing with the tension of God’s goodness and bad things happening takes a willingness to see God in faith from a different perspective.
Jesus never promised a life free from suffering to His followers. We do not suddenly become immune to life’s injustices just by calling God, our God. However, we do receive a resource others do not have:We have the knowledge that God walks with us and suffers with us through life’s trials and tribulations (see Hebrews 13:5).
Instead of seeing God doing this to me, we can shift our perspective in faith to seeing God suffering alongside me. When I weep, God weeps. He feels my pain like a good friend.Like a loving father taking his child’s hand to walk through the darkness, the dark scary place hasn’t suddenly changed in fact. However, it is a different experience with Daddy walking with me hand and hand.
