Up to Good

Ann Voskamp wrote a thoughtful piece about perspective. In it she states “God is only up to good work.”

That statement has the power to transform our lives, and this world,

if only we believed it.

But we don’t.

Too often, too many of us most often expect that God’s up to no-good

That he’s out to get us

Pay us back for all our failures

Such mentality is the result of sin.

For all our sophistication we’ve never really advanced much past the blame-game of the Garden of Eden.

When things go badly for us

We blame God.

It happened this way.

The flight out of Baltimore was delayed for two hours.

We sat patiently on the runway, air conditioning blasting.

The storm blew through Charlotte, allowing us to finally complete our flight.

But there were delays that required overnight stays.

Hotel bills that the airlines did not feel obligated to pay for.

“This was an Act of God,” the airline rep explained. “Sorry.”

Ironic in that she was a rep for U. S. Airways.

It’s the way of thinking for too many Americans

When there is poverty, job loss, foreclosure, divorce, death, child abuse, domestic abuse, drug abuse, delayed flights, business deals or investments gone bad

Why God? we cry out.  Why?

Yet, if the pilot catches a tailwind that makes all the flights on-time, and the ride pleasant, if everyone is cheerful and well-rested

Why does the airlines not make the announcement upon a smooth landing

Thank you, God?

We think of Acts of God as always being hurtful, always punishing

Why no resounding applause for the

Acts of God

that bless us?

Even our failures, says Bob Goff in his new book Love Does: The thing I love about God is that he intentionally leads us into failure.

The delays

The disappointments

The disasters.

Even in the midst of all that

God is still working for our good

for our transformation

If only we believed in His goodness

with the same conviction with which we believe

God’s out to punish us.

“I used to be afraid of failing at things that really mattered to me,but now I’m more afraid of succeeding at things that don’t matter.” Bob Goff/Love Does