It Is Good

Life is good. The phrase kept clanging around my head today. At first it seemed like an appropriate little status update. A bit of cheer in the middle of a May downpour. But I'm growing into a wary Facebooker. I've been burned before by sharing a blurb of how I'm feeling. Leadership roles have a way of making you think before you push "post" or the "like" button. Surely not without fault, but my words and clicks now go through a rigorous filtering process: How will this be perceived? Does this represent who I am, what I am truly about, or do I just want attention? Could this post/comment/"like" hurt someone's feelings? Is this sensitive, compassionate, thoughtful of others? Is this the kind of material I'd want to see/read as I scroll through Facebook/Instagram? Have I thought about this too much? Yes...well then, forget it.

So I held back. Kept my simple "Life is good" to myself and continued on with my day. It's a ridiculous statement considering there are people I know and love for whom life is a struggle. A monsoon. Life is scary, defeating, depressing, stressful. There are days, too numerous to count, where I myself have felt life defined by nothing much more than a weight of responsibilities and a space and time to disappoint others. How can life be good in the midst of that kind of pain? Life is good? Ha!

and yet -

I choose to believe: Life is good because it was and is and will forever be created by the Creator. And God IS good all the time.

God's goodness takes the hurt, in ways beautifully mysterious yet sometimes too slow by my timer, and chooses to create beauty. Life is good because all of that yuck isn't just wasted. It can be redeemed by Jesus Christ the Redeemer. Life is good because, when we least expect it, the Holy Spirit surprises us with joy, washes over us with the refreshment of freedom, and brings Light in the middle of a dark night.

May the God of all life, all love, all goodness, bring hope to you no matter the rain.