God is good all the time

For 22 years, I lived on the campus of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary which also happens to be the home of the LifeSongs radio station. Plastered across the banner of its website (lifesongs.com) are the words "God is good all the time."

When we say "God is good," what do we mean? One source I looked up defined the meaning as "morally excellent, extraordinarily beautiful, deeply glad, and extravagantly bountiful." While these are abundantly descriptive words, my thoughts on God's goodness are a little more simple: deeply caring, free from selfish motive, and action-oriented.

How do we know God is good? The Bible tells us over and over. Consider these scripture verses:

1 Chronicles 16:34 "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is GOOD; his love endures forever.

Psalm 100:5 "For the Lord is GOOD and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations."

Psalm 34: 8 "Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him."

Nahum 1:7 "The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble; He cares for those who trust in Him."

Have you ever heard someone say "It's all good"? I heard those words coming out of mouth several months after our Hurricane Katrina experience even though we were displaced from our home in New Orleans indefinitely and life was full of uncertainty. It just seemed like an easy way to sum up what was happening but truly it wasn't accurate. You see, someone would ask how we were doing and I was quick to brag on how God was providing for us in so many ways and I typically punctuated my comments with "it's all good." One friend, upon hearing me say that, responded, "Judi, it's NOT all good. Your home was flooded. You lost a lot of things you loved. That's not good. But God is good!"

You're right, my friend. All of that wasn't good but it got me to the place where I could say without doubt, "God is good."

Last week, before I had given any thought to this week's focus, I reflected about our Katrina experience on Facebook through the lens of last week's emphasis on the love of God:

Thirteen years ago, I never questioned God's love, even as the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina flooded my home, my community, and my world as I knew it at the time. It was hard -- really hard -- to walk through those days and weeks and months displaced from NOLA. But today, more than ever, I am in awe of the people who stepped up as the hands and feet of Jesus in our lives. "I would have despaired unless I had believed I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living" (Ps. 27:13) I saw God's goodness in the faces of a family who gave us a place to stay for five weeks; in the church and individuals who filled a gift registry wish-list to stock our new home; in gift cards and checks that came at 'just the right time' to remind us that God would supply our every need. God's goodness didn't spare us from an horrific natural disaster but His goodness gave us hope for what would come from it.

We were banking on His character ... the goodness in His character. He can't not be good!

On page 47 in In His Image, Jen Wilkin described God as ...

• "infinitely good" -- we can't know all of his goodness ... just what we see and experience and yet he's more good than all of this. I am reminded of how a young mom with a special needs child described her response to the words of the bridge in the song "Good Good Father" by Chris Tomlin. "You are perfect in all of your ways." She said, "I struggled with this because of my child and the challenges that come with his condition. I finally had to lay down my perception that God had made a mistake. Instead, if I say he's perfect in ALL of his ways, then this includes my child." Her honesty in this journey was (and is) inspiring because we all have to process our disappointments in life with the truth that God is "infinitely good."

• "immutably good" -- meaning, unchangingly good. "His goodness undergoes no increase or decline, nor does it waver. In him there is no darkness at all, nor has there ever been, nor will there ever be. He is good and he goes good. There is no better version of him to come, no progress from good to better to best for him. God's goodness is his utter benevolence, the complete absence of malice. God does not, cannot, and need not improve with age. He is as good as he has been or will ever be. Perfectly good. Utterly good" (47).

What a source of security and encouragement! God will always be good. His character does not change.

Perhaps this promise is what boosted Anne Graham Lotz (one of Billy Graham's daughters) when she recently received a diagnosis of breast cancer three years to the day after her husband drowned. Instead of being devastated, Anne has chosen a very different perspective.

What fuel has the Refiner added to the fire as He works to reveal Jesus in and through you? He has recently stoked the fire under me! I'm encouraged when I remember that when a refiner purifies gold, he melts it in a pot over the fire. He keeps turning up the heat until the dross, or impurities, rise to the surface. He then bends over the gold to skim off the dross, and continues doing so, until he can see his face reflected in the surface of the gold. (Latest from Anne, accessed 9/5/2018)

Anne Graham Lotz is choosing not to despair but to cling to God's goodness, to hope in the Lord.

Goodness is not in our character. Any goodness in us comes from God ... as he grows us in the Refiner's fire.

And like his holiness and his love, God does not make us play hide-and-seek until we find figure out his goodness. In Psalm 119:68, we read, "You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees." We can look to God as the perfect role model of goodness and how to do good things.

And just as we are called to love as God loves us, I believe we are called to "do good" just as God does good in our lives!

Recently I was listening to a podcast featuring Dana Spinola, creator and CEO of the store fab'rik. While she has an impressive back story for starting her business, what really caught my attention was what happened after God got a-hold of her heart on a mission trip to Haiti. She changed her business motto to "High Style with Heart" and felt like she couldn't continue with business as usual. While she still oversees the business in her boutiques (40 stores in 10-11 states), she also created "free fab'rik," a styling experience for women transitioning from sex trafficking (funded by donation, run by volunteers). Check it out at http://www.freefabrik.org/. Dana also takes her different staff members on mission trips to Africa (where she adopted her daughter Asher in Ethiopia). Truly Dana is set on doing good even as God is doing good in her life.

Another example of doing good is in our book on pages 51-52. Did you read about Osceola McCarty? She quit school after sixth grade and, from then on, helped her family by washing and ironing clothes for people in her Hattiesburg, MS community. "In 1995, at the age of 86, she contacted the University of Southern Mississippi to let them know she would be donating a portion of her life savings to fund scholarships for African-American students to receive the education she had missed -- a sum of $150,000." WHAT? Jen Wilkin pointed out that "Osceola McCarty, child of poverty and child of God, wanted to do good, and generously so.... Those who know good awaits them in heaven can afford to be generous on earth."

Note that Dana and Osceola have followed God's leading in goodness. They responded to God's touch on their lives. They've done good and been recognized for it in a positive way.

But if we reflect on Jesus' time on earth, we know that Jesus, the ultimate do-gooder, was not only NOT recognized in a positive way, he was put to death!

"He went about doing good. . . . They put him to death by hanging him on a tree" (Acts 10:38-39). Peter's words to the Gentiles about how evil responds to good instruct us. If we are to walk in the light as he is in the light, we will strive to be good and do good, and we should prepare to be treated as he was treated. There is no room among the children of God for any goodness aimed at securing favor with God or others. Only a goodness aimed at expressing our gratitude to a good God will do. (53)

And finally, take a look at Galatians 6:9-10. Let us not become weary in doing good for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

What are our take-aways from these verses?

• Don't become weary in doing good. It takes time and effort! Sometimes MUCH time and MUCH effort.
• A harvest is coming IF we don't give up! We're up against "internal resistance" and "resistance of others."
• Do good to ALL people (remember my story about serving the homeless? ALL people!).
• And especially to those who in family of believers! My friend Courtney Veasey uses the analogy of a water sprinkler ... we get so set on doing good to others and take for granted our family of believers. The grass under the sprinkler needs watering too!

So, "what is the will of God for your life? That you would be good as he is good. That generosity would be your first impulse in the morning and your last thought at night. That you would walk in the light as he is in the light. There is no darkness in him and no room for it in us." (54)