Several years ago my dearest friend's father was in the midst of a horrific medical crisis. A "routine" procedure had gone very, very wrong and after literally being brought back to life there was much uncertainty about how much damage was done.
God's people responded. One night church members that had come to support the family and pray overflowed out of the hospital waiting area and into hallways. My sweet friend's family was lifted up continuously to our Father.
When it became apparent that little permanent damage had been done - and this defied any medical reasoning - people rightly glorified God. They exclaimed over and over to my friend, "God is so good!"
And then she posed a question to me that I will never forget:
"What if God hadn't healed Dad? Would these people still know that God is good?"
Wow.
That question still gives me goosebumps mostly because the rock-solid faith of my dear friend blew me away.
But she had a point.
I think maybe what we mean to say in those situations, when God says "yes" to a dramatic request, is "That was so good of God!" Because my friend was right. God IS good. All the time. Unfailing. No matter what His answer to our request.
And if He, for whatever reason, had chosen to say "no" to the many pleas over her father's life He still would be just as good.
That's really hard to say. And really hard to swallow sometimes. Because it doesn't
feel good when the answer is "no", when the life is not spared, when the job does not come through, when life is just really hard.
But see, my feelings don't dictate God's character. And really, that's a good thing.
Oh, I've been told "no" to an urgent plea. And it hurt. As Beth Moore puts it in a book of hers, it hurt my feelings. I'm not going to pretend that all these years later I get it now, that I understand why He said "no". That I now see the glorious purpose in the pain.
Um, no.
But has my faith been stretched? You betcha. Because at that moment, when the "no" hurt to the very marrow, God gave me a choice: 1)abandon Him, the one who said "no" or 2)cling to Him even though I was hurt. There was no in-between.
So with a deep breath, many tears and hurt feelings I chose to stay. And although there's so much I still don't understand about those circumstances, a peace that passes understanding allowed me to start digesting that God had not failed me.
He was still good.
Life's hard. We live in a fallen world with situations that bring us to our knees, crying for the Lord to come quickly. And it's right for us to pray, to pray for miracles, to pray for compassion, to pray for healing. We are God's dearly loved children and He loves to give good gifts to us.
It's hard to say this without saying cold or trite. Please hear the tenderness in my heart, the heart that's also withstood a devastating "no", when I say to remember that God is still good when bad things happen. He does not want us to fall away on account of circumstances. Instead He wants us to run to Him so He can embrace us and wipe the tears from our face.
And because God is good, remember that this world is not our home. One day there will be no tears, no heartbreak, no enemy.
And
that is very, very good.
