Faith Archives - Page 12 of 19 - call me pasturescott

the hidden goodness of God

Dickens penned one of the greatest opening lines in a novel with “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

It takes a whole other level of creativity to find the best of times in the worst of times; that’s something only the Author of Life can write. I’ve been through some terrible and dark times but with each has come a major plot twist: good from bad, healing from ruin, life from death.

A particularly dark time brought me into the jaws of death in 2009. None of my doctors could locate the cause of infection that was taking my life. Every day the news got more grim; every day I fell more deeply into darkness. I won’t belabor you with the entire nasty business but I will tell you this: today I look back on that time with reverence and a deeper revelation into the healing love of God.

So when David makes wild claims like “It is good for me that I was afflicted…” I don’t wince; I say to myself, “I totally get that.”

Years ago, our son made this cross out of garbage bags while in prison; there’s truly a parable in it.

The longest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119 and covers the entire vista of life in God from A-Z. Each section begins with a succeeding letter of the Hebrew alphabet and the accompanying verses expand on the theme. If you move your eyes down to the ninth paragraph (vs65-72) you’ll find composer David reflecting on the greatest lesson he ever learned about trials and afflictions.

The 9th letter in the poem, TETH (‘tayt’), means essentially “the hidden goodness of God.” Take a look at the image just below: some have seen in the shape of the letter a pregnant belly, others a full pot. The ‘good’ within can only be seen at delivery or when one removes the lid.

Now take another look at the passage above and locate the underlined words. Each time it’s the Hebrew word, “Tov.”

“Tov” (“well”, “good”, “better”) is found six times, hidden in those eight verses. Its basic meaning is ‘good’ but it’s fuller definition has to do with something that is “well suited” for its purpose; something “well wrought” and “well crafted.” It’s a word found in the vocabulary of an artist.

🔹It’s a fruit of the Spirit (“goodness”)

🔹We first see it throughout the creation story (“God created….and it was good”)

🔹Satan wanted to erase all “good” from creation, plunging it all into darkness and chaos; he wanted the opposite of ‘tov’: he wanted despair and hopelessness

🔹God has preserved this aspect of creation by never removing ‘Tov’; even as Satan is busily stacking bricks to build his empire, rays of ‘tov’ spread over the earth…to the evil one’s great consternation

Satan assumed grief would be the end of us. He thought affliction and trial would cause us to curse God. He never, ever expected good to come from any of it.

The devil wanted to erase “good” for good. Big mistake. God’s good cannot be erased; this is still our Father’s world, and we can find good in our suffering.

My dad was known for having a wonderful singing voice. When called on to give a solo at church he would sometimes sing “The Love of God.” I remember hearing him give the backstory about one of the verses being found on the walls of a cell, put there by an inmate at an insane asylum:

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
and were the skies of parchment made;
were every stalk on earth a quill,
and every man a scribe by trade:
to write the love of God above
would drain the ocean dry,
nor could the scroll contain the whole
though stretched from the sky to sky.

It’s crazy to think how we can see the love of God inside walls of despair pressing in on us. It seems counterintuitive. How do you sing about the love of God from a hospital bed? How can you see the goodness of God at the graveside of your child or spouse?

After my accident in 1981 I spent time at Shepherd spinal center in Atlanta doing rehab. One day the staff psychologist called my parents into his office and said he didn’t think I was handling my disability well at all. He felt I was living in denial. I was (his assessment) “too happy.”

I can tell you that I am not the hero in any of my stories. It’s not about how strong or well-balanced I am. It’s all about the goodness of God.

One of the pilgrim psalms tells us God has a “thousand ways to set you free!” (Psa 130:7). When you begin to learn how much God loves to rescue us, you learn, even in the throes of great trial, to wait for him to show up. Because he will.

“The anvil, the fire, and the hammer, are the making of us…I have found that there is a sweetness in bitterness not to be found in honey; a safety with Christ in a storm which may be lost in a calm. It is good for me that I have been afflicted.” – Charles Spurgeon

“Good” affliction

It’s good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. (Psa 119:71)

“Good. for. me.”

“Good” has the place of emphasis. Everything else is window dressing. This passage is the Old Testament parallel to Romans 8:18-28. We know that Paul was a Hebrew scholar and in his training as a Pharisee memorized the Old Testament Scriptures. I think it’s very likely he was calling to remembrance these verses in Psalms when he was writing his Magnus opus in Romans!

So it begs the question: how can we call grief and affliction “good”?

A number of years ago, I was sitting by the graveside of my son, just talking with him about my disability and how good God has been to me throughout my affliction. It was actually on the 33rd anniversary of my accident and I just started jotting down some things. I wish I had time to share them all with you here (there’s a whole bunch more), but let’s just look at a few that tell us why trials and troubles and heartache can be called “good” in the plan of God.

▪️Faithfully enduring trials invites us into deeper intimacy with the Father

▪️It is not in suffering itself that brings glory but our voluntary, joyful acceptance of it

▪️Broken people release the aroma of Christ’s love, healing and mercy

▪️God only allows suffering when He is intent on birthing something new out of it

▪️There’s no greater evangelical “tool” than for the unsaved to encounter a broken vessel that lets the Light of Christ shine into the darkness!

▪️The afflictions of this lifetime will determine the affluence of my eternity and the pains I endure here will reciprocate to pleasures compounded daily for eternity

▪️Until faith has been tested in fire it cannot be trusted in life

▪️God is more focused on my character than my comfort – but not at the expense of His being my Comforter!

▪️Joyfully embracing brokenness leads to patience, gratitude and infectious hope

I pray you find the best of things in the worst of times. May the hidden goodness of God change your story and leave you… stunned.

But in a good way.

Selah, beloved.

hope is the thing

[this shot is for Sandy on her fifth Mother’s Day without Graham; it symbolizes her world blown apart by grief for a son lost too soon, even as her feathery faith – on precarious strings – holds it together…in hope]

Faith goes up the stairs that love has built and looks out the windows which hope has opened.

– Charles H. Spurgeon

“Hope is the thing with feathers…”

– Emily Dickinson

“Hope is revolutionary patience” says Anne Lamott. What is patience, then? It is the yet-to-be-realized longing of a looking soul. It is a parent’s eyes glued to yonder horizon, knowing that one day there will be a reunion and a feast…while, for now, there’s only the quiet vigil of sighing and dreaming.

The heart knows a secret bravery that is not celebrated with medals and speeches, but with unabated courage to take every day as it comes. It looks like flowers on a grave, instead of beside a child’s Mother’s Day card. Like sending a text or making a call to another mother who has her kids and wishing her a happy day.

Joy, in this world, is not sung, it is whispered; it is pomp and circumstance under the breath, minus the fanfare and marching. But ever so often it hears the instruments tuning and warming and tilts its head, satisfied the prelude is not too long now.

To witness up close such incarnated hope each day – along with every hollow milestone – is a thing of beauty. Sandy’s unpretentious, faithful life is a blog gone viral in the heavenlies, a sermon without pounded pulpit, a book you weep through to get to the next wonderful page.

Her spirit is a feather for she is the embodiment of stained-glass hope.

Proverbs 31:29-31
Many women have done excellently,
but you surpass them all.”
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands,
and let her works praise her in the gates.

Selah

podcast: simon gets [another] lesson in fishing

Simon Peter may have been a pro at fishing but he still had a lot to learn about discipleship. (Don’t we all?)

Let’s talk about that today on the Pasture’s Podcast.

I don’t know when I’ve had more fun doing a podcast. That’s actually saying something, too, because I love every podcast I’m part of.

Joy is what I felt. It seemed as if the pleasure of the Father was streaming back-and-forth between John and myself as we conversed about gospel truth, living faith, and, yes, fishing…Simon Peter style.

Luke 5:1-8
On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret,and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat.And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”

I hope you’ll tune in and get a sense of what I’m talking about. For me, you can’t beat a dialogue that seems to be carried on the easy winds of divine grace. It’s effortless and oh so inspiring!

My friend and mentor, John Brown, joins me for a new edition of the Pasture’s Podcast, and we’ll swap thoughts and insights on not settling for less than the life our Lord is making available to us.

As we were talking I couldn’t help but think of the quote from C.S. Lewis,

It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us; like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
– C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

So, with that, let’s go to an ancient Sea and learn how we might trade in our half-hearted lives for Another Life where greater things happen in the deep end of the ocean.

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