Goodness Still

¹³ I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.

¹⁴ Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.
~Psalm 27:13-14 (NIV)

The goodness of God is my saving point at this place in my life.  When all is in upheaval…when loyalties are questionable…when the future is so uncertain, I can be confident in the unchanging, unwavering goodness of my Father God.

In the song “How He Loves Us” by John Mark McMillan (not the Kim Walker version, though I like it too) there is a third verse which relates the story behind the song.  (John Mark had a youth minister he was close to who died in a car wreck, and he wrote the song in memory of his friend.)

Well, I thought about You the day Stephen died and You met me between my breaking
I know that I still love You, God, despite the agony
…they want to tell me You’re cruel
But if Stephen could sing, he’d say it’s not true, cause He loves us…

God’s goodness is found in the fact that, despite the agony, He loves us.  Despite the agony, “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)  Not that all things are good, but all things “work together for good”.  Not that God needed this bad thing to happen to work His good will, but out of the destruction Satan intended, God’s goodness prevails and transforms.  He transforms death into life, pain into strength, struggle into progress, loss into empathy, shock into understanding.

I still don’t have all the answers.  I probably never will.  But of this I am sure:  I will see the goodness of the Lord active in my life.

If you’d like to read related posts on goodness, check out the One Word Blog Carnival over at Bridget Chumbley’s place.

ohn Mark’s story is much more elegant than my discovery of it. He had a youth minister he was close to and he’d been praying and praying for there to be a movement among the youth that he was leading. One morning, when they were meeting to pray he said, “I’d give my life for this if that’s what it takes to see a movement among these youth. Do whatever you need to do God.” That evening John Mark’s friend, Steven the youth pastor, died in a car wreck, and John Mark wrote the song in memory of his friend. For those not yet touched or affected by this song, we wanted to put our breath behind the song because we think it is one of those unique songs for the church at large to sing.

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