Struggling with the "goodness" of God

My biggest struggle with Christianity today is the focus on the goodness of God. It’s not that I don’t believe that God is gracious, which is good, or merciful, which is good, or that He does good things. I struggle with the “God is good, all the time – all the time, God is good” stuff. Romans 8:28 says: “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.” But does that mean that all things are good? Or that God is good to all people? Some scriptural examples that Paul brings up very shortly after Roman 8:28 (in Romans 9 – a section of Christianity which is largely overlooked by most churches today) Pharaoh might not agree that God is good all the time; Esau might not agree that God is good all the time. Here’s a verse that I don’t see Sunday school teachers encouraging their students to memorize – Romans 9:17: “For the scripture says to Pharaoh: ‘I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.’” This seems different than Esther 4:14’s “for such a time as this.” It’s called providence, not goodness.

I believe that the “God is good, all the time” stuff has caused major problems with the effectiveness of the witness of Christianity today. It doesn’t fit with most people’s experiences and so they blow off Christianity without even giving it major consideration. How can a person look at September 11, 2001 and say “God is good all the time”? I can still say “in all things God works for the good”, without saying “wasn’t God good on September 11th?” I don’t think the second is necessarily true. God used September 11th to cause good things to happen, but I cannot say God was good to allow that to happen.

Here are some examples from my personal experience. (These are all experiences that I was involved in directly or indirectly. I have chosen to write them from a third person perspective because I don’t want it to be about me. I want it to be about how my perspective has been shaped by these experiences.) When the parents of a five year old found out that their child had major problems with his left kidney, their first reaction wasn’t “God is good all the time.” It was more like “God was good to let us find this now before it caused major complications.” In college when one of a friend’s tests got lost causing him to almost fail a class (he would have failed the class if the professor hadn’t found the test 8 weeks later), it didn’t cause him to say “God is good”. One man I know was invited by his friend to become business partners. After agreeing to go into business and making significant financial sacrifices, the friend was “called by God” to go into the missions field. The impact that this had on the man’s view of God and missionaries wasn’t “God is good”. Another friend was let go from three different volunteer positions at his church. (To quote Scrooged, “You can’t fire them, their volunteers!”) And then when he tried to get a paying position at the church he was told that his track record for his volunteer work wasn’t very strong. Isn’t God just so good! Then when a lady I know had a miscarriage, God was not “good” to her.

So, how have I learned to view God through all of these circumstances? Well, it would seem as though I would want to blow off Christianity completely, because who wants to worship a God that is not good? Well, a person with a capitalistic world view might want to shop for a better God, but I agree with Peter: “Lord, to whom shall we go. You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68) It may be a hard truth, but it is still truth.

Job 2:10 “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”

Job 1:21 “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”