The Journey

Recently, I had the "God is all good" conversation 3 times in one week with 3 different people. It forced me to ask myself, "Is God all good?" When people die in car accidents, when children are hurt unexpectedly, when life gets bumpy and finances are shaky, is He all good?

Yes.

My experience with the goodness of God is just that - an experience - experiences. Day to day wonderings about His character become actual realities when I live them. God is all good, however, this world is not all good. People are not all good. Circumstances are not all good. But He is all good. I found myself trying to convince these friends that God is all good. Regardless of the situation, He is all good. Because there is no black and white answer. As people, we long for black and white answers. We long for concrete, things we can explain.

And God is the complete opposite. He is abstract. And He is unexplainable. He is in all instances of the phrase - grey. The perfect blend of truth and grace. The perfect blend of abiding by societal norms and shattering them.

It has forced me to stop. It has forced me to think: Do I believe God is all good? What do I do with all these questions that don't have answers? How do I answer their questions?

The more I thought about it, the more I talked it out, I kept getting to the same answer: the journey. The answer to all of these questions is the journey. It is the striving (in a good way) to be different tomorrow than we are today. It is the pursuit to "be holy as He is holy: (1 Peter 1:15). The questions that in someway embody "if God is all good, why do bad things happen?" is answered: the journey.

The goal is to be different tomorrow than I am today. The goal is to be healthier, stronger, more faith filled, happier, more secure, more like Jesus tomorrow than I am today. On the journey is where all the questions of life are answered. Some of them have answers we may not like. Some of them have no answer this side of Heaven. And some of them have answers that we cannot understand in our present state.

As we journey toward Christ, we will find more out about His character. He will let us in on difference facets that not only show us how beautiful He is, but show us more and more about who we are.

No one said it would be easy. No one said we wouldn't have trials. It is in fact the complete opposite. But there is something exhilarating in the journey. There is something all together scary and exciting about not knowing what's next.

The journey is where it's at.