a worship reflection by Brittany Stillwell
God is so good.
God is so good.
God is so good, so good to me.
I have to admit, lately this song has been hard to sing. As I watch war unfold, in heartbreaking images played over and over on the news and never ceasing headlines pinging my phone, from the safety and comfort of my privilege, this song is the last thing from my mind. How could a good God let this happen? Is God only good to certain people at certain times? God may be a lot of things… almighty, powerful, creator… but is God really good?
I spend a lot of time and energy asking why–why a good God would let such horrific things happen? This is a very human response to suffering—a question asked since our Creator put this world in motion. It makes sense that we would want to know why. We are wired to want to know why. But if I spend any real, authentic, time at all with this question, I come to a scary conclusion—what if God isn’t good?
But then I watch war unfold and I see resilient images of hope played over and over again on my tv; a country coming together to care for each other and fight for freedom, folks risking their lives and livelihoods to resist a power-hungry president, people oceans away joining together in solidarity to send aid to country so foreign and yet so familiar. And if that is not evidence of a good God, I don’t know what is.
I don’t know why a good God lets bad things happen, and I think I will wrestle with this question my whole life. The lie that God is not good will always linger, at times closer than others. But perhaps, in moments like these, I am asking the wrong question. What if, instead, I spent more time asking, “How?” “How do we make it through this complicated and frightening world?” Maybe then, instead of being paralyzed by fear and despair, I will find resilience and hope in the world around me. Perhaps if I focus more on the “how?” I will see God-with-us at work in the world—giving hope to the poor in Spirit, comforting those who mourn, providing for the meek, filling the hungry, giving mercy to the merciful and a glimpse of God to the pure in heart, bringing peace among God’s children. Maybe I’ll even find myself on the move; joining in the fight for justice, bringing hope to the hopeless.
And if that is not evidence of a good God, I don’t know what is.
God is so good.
God is so good.
God is so good, so good to me.