30 Days of Thankfulness ~ Day 2 ~ Good

Growing up we often sang the song God is so Good in church and I still often sing the song softly to my kids as I am putting them to bed. They've learned it too. Yet, in all my singing these familiar words over and over I never realized that while they had made it into my head, their meaning had never sunk deep into my heart. God is good. 

In this world of so much ugliness, where it is hard to find good, how can we hold fast to Him as good despite it all? Why do we find it to hard to relate this truth into the midst of our so not good circumstances? I think partly it is because our circumstances so often dictate our feelings and our feelings often shape our truths instead of the truth shaping our feelings. I know for me personally it is easy to see God's goodness when the days are bright and sunny and all seems to be right in my world. Those days of perpetual rain, with the chaos of life spinning apart around me and darkness lurking in the corners it feels like God's goodness goes into hiding. But it doesn't. It can't. He is always and forever fully good - it may not be good as we see it, but even in the darkness, His goodness is fully there. 

I remembered after my miscarriage in the midst of an intense season of depression and grief I cried out to God to show me more of His goodness. My circumstances didn't change. My perspective of God did. I saw Him there with me in the darkness and I began to envision not being alone in that that dark valley and Jesus showing me the places where He was holding on to me. 

The song King of My Heart by John Mark McMillan became my heart's anthem. I would sing it to remind myself of God's goodness in every season, but the best part was the tag line that says "When the night is holding on to me, God is holding on" It was my story and the truth I so desperately needed in my moments of depression. 

God's goodness is never ending, always present and always engaged in making us know Him more. I'm so thankful that God's goodness never stops pursuing me, even in the dark.