God is so good,
God is so good,
God is so good,
He’s so good to me!
— Children’s Gospel Song
I tend toward worry and fighting. If I get stuck, I battle my way out. When worry arises, I create to-do lists and action plans. Sometimes, though, I find myself in a corner that I can’t get out of. No strategy and no amount of scrapping will grant escape. I’m trapped.
One of those moments occurred recently. I’ve been struggling professionally, and, at this particular time, I voiced my concern to God. I told him I felt trapped in a corner and needed a way out.
God, I Need You
Instead of planning or plotting, I admitted my weakness. I recognized I needed a rescue only God could give. Sure, I’m seeking work and doing everything I should to find it, but I still need God’s hand to move. He, not me, needs to make a way.
Once I spoke the words, no voice split the roof of my house’s ceiling. No light fixture burst into flame. I continued back to my computer and the work calling my name.
However, before I dived back into that work — writing an article about artificial intelligence — I glanced at my email. It revealed a reply I’d been waiting for all week. While the message contained no certainty about future employment, it still caused my spirits to lift.
God is So Good
It prompted me to say, “You’re (God) so good to me.” It could seem like an overreaction to some people. They might think I’m seeing a correlation where none exists.
Even so, it felt like God reached out and reassured me. Maybe the sensation has something to do with reading Prodigal God—the book makes me hyper-conscious of how I relate to God. I usually interact with him as an elder brother, the goody-two-shoes who seeks approval for doing the right things at the right time.
For a few seconds, though, I experienced God in the way the younger brother does. The father rushes out to greet and embrace his son, despite what the son has done. The father exhibits extravagant, prodigal love, and that’s what my prayer for help and email felt like. In such an encounter, how could I not say something? How could I not tell God how good he is? I couldn’t not speak, so I spoke. I said, “God, you’re so good to me.”
Image: Aaron Hawkins (Creative Commons)