I have a phobia of my zipper being down. I don’t know why and surmise this is the result of some embarrassment as a child that caused a trauma that now lives within me as a silly, unsurrendered fear.
As I was coming out of the Men’s Bathroom one Sunday morning, I was doing my customary zipper check when, as I looked up I saw the faces of a sister and brother in Christ. My embarrassment at being caught with my hand in the ‘zipper’ jar quickly gave way to concern as I saw the tears flowing down my sister’s face. A quick discussion revealed that they had become aware of their son’s exposure and budding addiction to pornography. I will never forget the look of brokenness leading to confusion to hope to expectation that occurred in a few short moments when I asked to pray with them. During that prayer I radically and emphatically thanked God for revealing the issue. For ripping away the lies of darkness and secrecy and for the gift of early detection that led to openness and transparency within this family, that had not resided before. The broken mother and father had never considered the gift of awareness that God had delivered, seemingly wrapped in devastation and hopelessness. A change in their perspective stopped defeat in its tracks. Hope won! God, you are good.
“Radical gratitude is the ability to be grateful even during painful moments, and to appreciate the beauty, joy, and compassion in life.” AI Overview
I often see comments of ‘God is good’ during times of personal gratification, achievement, acquisition. New home, God is good. New car, God is good. Athletic accomplishment, God is good. Dream trip, God is good. Health scare that was just that, a scare, God is good.
The truth is, God is good. In the face of desperation, God is good. When terminal illness arrives in a home, God is good. When a job and associated identity is ripped from one’s life, God is good. When the drunk driver runs the red light and stops life in that microsecond, God is good. When a beloved child is wracked by the imprisonment of addiction, God is good.
God is good! All the time. All the time, God is good.
It is so hard to humanly consider a good God during unbearable seasons. Why, God? Why God would you willingly allow Satan to wreak havoc on your righteous man, Job. Taking all of his Worldly possessions, his children, his health, and his wife telling him to curse you and die? Just to make a point to a defeated Satan! And through this, Job laid down and worshipped you. Gratitude in the face of calamity. And then God, in your goodness you restored him multi fold from what he had lost.
“At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship.” Job 1:20 NIV
Father, your Word has so many truths that prove you are a good God in every situation. During the years Joseph was a slave, your good works were in process. During the 400 years the Israelites were in Egypt as slaves, your goodness washed over them. When Naomi lost her husband and sons, you showed us your amazing goodness through Ruth and Naomi’s relationship, affirmed and redeemed through Naomi’s relative Boaz. Lord, when all seemingly had been lost and Israel dismantled by Nebuchadnezzar, you showed your promise of goodness when you gave the words of promise in Jeremiah 29:11, that would happen 70 years in the future.
Then Father, after centuries of silence as humankind desperately sought you, your gift of goodness arrived in the form of a little boy, to a young mother and faithful human father. Your eternal goodness came and the darkness of doubt was pushed aside for eternity.
Dad. Father. Abba. Jehovah-Rapha, you are good. You alone a trustworthy. You alone are omnipotent and omnipresent. You alone are deserving of my radical gratitude.
Lord, cause us, your children to exhibit radical gratitude in the face of every situation. Dad, cause me to see your temple in your children when a broken World see rubble. Father, create in me a heart of hope revealed through naive and unabashed gratitude. For financial challenges, thank you. For unanswered prayer (which in truth have been answered), thank you. For failure, thank you. For issues, challenges, fears, doubt, uncertainty, thank you. Thank you for being Certainty in an uncertain life that the enemy desires to destroy. Father, I choose to be radically grateful for ALL you allow and have given and taken from me in my life.
So this Thanksgiving day, I serve a good God. I am redeemed by a good God. I am loved by a good God. I am wrapped in the mercy of a good God. I am a child of the only true God. I am loved.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life”. John 3:16
And that is enough.