God is Good

Just over a decade ago I was in Honduras for the first time.  It was also the first time I heard the refrain "God is good all the time, all the time God is good."  It was a message we were sharing in a place where the more fortunate lived in metal roofed shacks with roughly the square footage of a medium-sized Tuff Shed but not nearly as nice.

Others lived in cardboard boxes or hovels put together with whatever scraps could be found.  Many simply slept under a tree or whatever overhang was available.  Few had shoes, virtually no children were seen with footwear.  Health and dental care were non-existent in the villages, and even simple medicines like aspirin were not to be found.  Even food and potable water were in short supply, making for many bellies empty except for the parasites that came from the drinking supply and sleeping on dirt floors.

How could we claim that God is good all the time to a people who had so little and suffered so much?  More importantly, why would they believe it?  Where was the goodness of God to be seen?  It was seen in the children of God who came at their own expense, bringing medical and dental supplies, food, shoes and building little metal roofed shacks that seemed like mansions to those who had no place to lay their heads.

While the world was not always good, God was good and he had sent Christian workers, many of whom were teenagers, to share their faith and their goods.  We helped erect church buildings and community centers, provided portable water filtration with each house built, taught marketable skills, provided more of a hand up than a hand out.  They began to see clearly how good God was when invited into their families and communities.  The world continued to be harsh but God's presence was a healing balm.

In my work as a hospice chaplain, I deal daily with people dying and their families.  I share this truth with them and part of the reason they agree is because they see the goodness of God in Arkansas Hospice nurses, aides, social workers, doctors and chaplains.  I hear them describe our people as angels as the families express how grateful they were for the blessing of hospice.

I see the same thing at the recovery group home called Samaritan House, where I volunteer to preach.  I hear it when the area churches gather to go out in teams to complete community projects, pass out clothes and provide food for the hungry and homeless.  His goodness is revealed anytime, anywhere that His children go in His name, doing the "good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Eph 2:10).

God is good all the time and when his children are living as his children are called to live, his goodness is seen continually in and through us.  If you and/or people around you are not seeing the truth of His constant goodness, what on earth are you doing for goodness sake?  Jus' Ask'n.