“God is good. All the time. And all the time, God is good.”
I just got back from a weekend camp with crazy middle school students. We were introducing them to Jesus. I overheard some of them saying they have only been to church five times, and another kid responded saying he had only been ten times. “Wow that’s a lot” one remarked. To which I chuckled inside, thinking how this was the first weekend in a while that I was not in church. I spent Sunday morning singing “Lean on Me” and playing crazy games. But it was all worth it to introduce kids to a good God. The phrase “God is good” was a repeat after me phrase a camp director used in San Diego my first year as a full time youth minister. I remember the rhythm of repeating it to quiet down the room, to remind us of what we believe. And it was the conviction of the thirty or so adults who sacrificed their weekend to be with two hundred cussing, trouble making, sassy, and down right exhausting middle schoolers – we believe God is good and we want to introduce these kids to our good God.
I am wearing some cool new Nike shoes that just arrived. I love them. As a customer I value the things that were added by people and designers to make this shoe come together. The cutting of materials, sowing of fabric, molding of the sole, and careful packaging. The things I do not care about, are the things the manufacture and company went through to move this shoe around, where it sat before I bought it, and all that goes on in between. Your life is similar. There are things that add value to your life, but just like the shoe there is in fact a lot, I mean a lot, of waste. I read many years ago that Toyota, one of the leading innovators in eliminating waste in their car manufacturing process, said they had gotten their process to 20% value add and 80% waste. If they are the leaders and experts at this, what does it look like for the regular guys?
What do you think the percentage is in your life? Do you think you’re on the expert level with Toyota around the 20% value add mark? If all the time God is good, then why is life full of so much bad? A lot of what takes up my time is not really in line with experiencing the goodness of God all the time, if I am lucky I just might get a good 10-20% on a good day. Perhaps there’s a different way of looking at the 80% that dominates our life. The Apostle Paul flips the script in two distinct ways: approaching problems and practicing contentment.
Romans 5:1-11 CEB
1 Therefore, since we have been made righteous through his faithfulness, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand through him, and we boast in the hope of God’s glory. 3 But not only that! We even take pride in our problems, because we know that trouble produces endurance, 4 endurance produces character, and character produces hope. 5 This hope doesn’t put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
6 While we were still weak, at the right moment, Christ died for ungodly people. 7 It isn’t often that someone will die for a righteous person, though maybe someone might dare to die for a good person. 8 But God shows his love for us, because while we were still sinners Christ died for us. 9 So, now that we have been made righteous by his blood, we can be even more certain that we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. 10 If we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son while we were still enemies, now that we have been reconciled, how much more certain is it that we will be saved by his life? 11 And not only that: we even take pride in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, the one through whom we now have a restored relationship with God.
I love the context of these words: “because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance produces character and character produces hope.” We can approach our problems and troubles differently because of the restored relationship Jesus brings for us with God. For Paul the 80% is not seen as waste, but stuff leading to hope. For Paul, God is good all the time not because everything goes perfectly but because of how he approaches the problems that come up, he approaches them knowing God is there all the time.
Philippians 4:10-14
10 I was very glad in the Lord because now at last you have shown concern for me again. (Of course you were always concerned but had no way to show it.) 11 I’m not saying this because I need anything, for I have learned how to be content in any circumstance. 12 I know the experience of being in need and of having more than enough; I have learned the secret to being content in any and every circumstance, whether full or hungry or whether having plenty or being poor. 13 I can endure all these things through the power of the one who gives me strength. 14 Still, you have done well to share my distress.
From a jail cell or house arrest – whatever “in chains” might entail for a first century Jew under Roman rule – Paul exudes way too much enthusiasm for stuff that has gone wrong in his life. He claims that even people who want to one up him in sharing the Good News about Jesus just to get him more in trouble as being a good thing – another moment when God is good. This is something I struggle with Paul over. A lot of the time I wish Paul did not say these things because I am not convinced all of his examples are really “good” moments. So how can Paul write this way when clearly at least 80% or more of the time his life was full of waste? He actually even says this in chapter three of his letter to the Philippian church. Everything he counted as important he counts as waste, loss, and garbage compared to “knowing Jesus Christ…and be found in [Christ]” (Philippians 3:7-10 CEB). So in chapter four Paul gets right down to dealing with the 80% waste: being content. Full or hungry, feeling good or having a rough day Paul handles it because of the power of Jesus in his life.
How can we practice being content and approach our problems with the power of Christ? This is the focus of the Value Add project. I want to explore the very important reality Paul puts forth as “knowing Jesus.” I appreciate the attempts and phrases such as “God is good all the time, and all the time God is good” but where the rubber meets the road is in the way we approach the stuff that goes wrong, the 80% of life that feels like waste.
So how would you describe your day right now? Did your experiences today add value to you? Did your conversations with your friends or family add value to their lives? Did the work you do add value to the world? Did your spiritual practices add value to your faith and relationship with God?
Next month’s post will explore the 3 R’s of religious practice: Repentance, Reading, and Relationship.
Creative God: Father, Son, and Spirit – may the relationships, experiences, troubles, and stuff of today be used value adding in the development of our confident hope in the your goodness.
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