From the Pastor

“The Goodness of Good” 

Ever notice that the word “good” can feel negative to us? I can preach a sermon on a Sunday, and afterwards, someone will say “That was good,” but the comment will leave me deflated and disappointed. How is it that you can cook dinner and then ask your spouse, “How was your meal?” and the answer comes back, “It was good.” It sounds like a polite avoidance of what they really think. In other words, what we interpret them saying is that they didn’t really like it.

 The word “good” has lost the capacity to convey something that is deeply satisfying, and something of profound worth. I guess that’s the way certain words work. We hear “good” and feel under-whelmed. It feels average or mediocre. We feel like we have let people down. We yearn for other adjectives. I want my sermon to be “powerful,” “moving,” and “dynamic.” The meal needs to be “fabulous,” or the dessert “sinful.” Isn’t it funny how “sinful” can communicate something more compelling than the word “good?”

 One of the most influential books in recent years for business and church leaders has been Jim Collins’ work “Good to Great.” The title of the book captures the way we think. Good isn’t good enough. Good is simply a prelude to something more than good, — something great. We like good as long as we know we’re just passing through on our way to “awesomely great.” 

However, maybe the better way to think is that the word order is important. After all, don’t we pray before the meal, “God is good and God is great . . .” It’s almost like we are building up our adjectives to describe the majesty of God. It’s not that goodness is not good, but it is just one way in which we describe the glory the Lord as we stretch our vocabulary to define who God is. 

 The truth is, God’s goodness is closely connected to God’s glory. And like a motorboat powering across a glassy smooth lake in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, goodness is the frothy wake of God’s glory. And whenever we splash around in God’s goodness, it should be evident for all to see.

 I would like to think that this is exactly what the Holy Spirit does in our lives. The Spirit washes us in the goodness of God, and that goodness then radiates from us. This Sunday we will be looking at the Fruit of Goodness. May God’s goodness shine from your face as you experience his grace, greatness, and glory. 

 Pastor John

Quote of the Week

 “The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.”  

 C.S. Lewis

 Clive Staples Lewis was a British novelist, poet, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian, broadcaster, lecturer, and Christian apologist. He held academic positions at both Oxford University and Cambridge University. He is best known for his works of fiction, especially The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, such as Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain.