Is God Good?

Steve Jobs grew up going to church.  At age thirteen, a copy of “Life” magazine came to his house.  On the front cover was a picture of a starving child in Biafra, the rebel state of Nigeria.  Deeply moved, he brought the picture to church the following Sunday and asked his pastor if God knew about the famine in Biafra.  The pastor replied that God knew everything.  Then Jobs asked, “Then why doesn’t God do something about it?”  The pastor stumbled through an answer to an unanswerable question.  Jobs later pointed to this conversation as his turning point away from traditional Christianity to alternative forms of faith.

Steve Jobs was not the first person to wonder why God seemed unresponsive to suffering.  Charles Templeton, a contemporary of Billy Graham, turned away from Christian faith when he too saw a picture of a starving child.  Templeton said he would never allow a child to starve.  He concluded that there either was no god, or if there was a god, he was not good. 

It is strange when we see suffering, we quickly assume God should do something, that he is responsible.  In the case of the Biafra famine, the rebel government refused to allow planes with relief supplies to fly into their territory.  Was God to blame for that?  In places like South Sudan, food is often left to rot on the docks in Ethiopia because relief agencies refuse to bribe corrupt officials.  Is God to blame for that?

Of course, all suffering is not related to starvation.  Why does one cancer patient survive and another perish?  Why does the couple who longs for a child remain childless while another couple seems over-blessed with children?  Why is slavery still tolerated in India?  Why are oppressive dictators allowed to live in luxury while their people scratch for survival?  Our hearts are moved, and we wonder if God’s heart is moved. 

There is an answer, of course, but it does not make us happy.  God, being God, does know everything.  He is more aware of suffering than you are.  It is always before him.  But God also knows the importance of free will.  He allows people to sin, and their sin causes suffering. 

What about suffering that God seems to cause, like a drought?  The answer to this disappears into the mystery of God.  No book I have read can adequately explain this.  The best we can say is we do not know.  This causes people like Steve Jobs and Charles Templeton to turn away from God.  In doing so, they implicitly say, “We are smart enough to understand the ways of God, and he should explain Himself to us.” 

I have seen enough stupidity on the part of human beings (including myself) to believe we are not as smart as we think we are.  I do not believe that we are able to understand all there is to understand about God, an infinite being.  I’ve studied the book of Job enough to know God does not have to explain himself to human beings.

Any discussion of the goodness of God must consider not just suffering, but also the goodness in the world.  An old hymn says we are to “…Count your blessings, name them one by one.”

Oxygen is a blessing.  It is God-given.  It is free.  Gravity is a blessing.  Imagine a world where gravity is not a constant.  Color is a gift.  What if the world had only one color?  What if God chose gray?  Or olive-drab.  Even yellow would get tiresome after a while.

Your brain is a gift.  Without much thought, I imagine a letter and my fingers type it out.  My brain can remember instructions from typing class long ago.  I can remember how my mother’s fried steak smelled, the taste of her milk gravy on rice.  Even as I type that last sentence, my brain sends a message to my salivary glands to create more saliva in anticipation.

The stars are a gift.  What if we are alone in the universe?  What if God sprinkled all those stars and galaxies in the night sky for our pleasure? 

The ability to love is a gift.  Most animals breed based on lust.  Humans can love and bond.  No one had to tell me to love my grandsons.  My heart went out to them as naturally as a duck takes to water.

Jesus' followers believe that God’s greatest goodness is the gift of his son.  Millions upon millions have turned to Jesus for forgiveness of sins.  Lives have been changed, addictions broken.  Families have been healed; trauma has been redeemed.  God’s great gift is adoption into his family.  We become his children, and he holds us. 

When I look at the gifts and blessings of God, I choose to believe God is good.  I cannot explain all that is wrong with the world, but because I believe God is good, I trust he cares more about suffering and sin than I do.  I believe he cares about my suffering, even though I am far from starvation.  I also believe that as a follower of Jesus, my compassion must grow to be like God’s. 

Before you decide God is not good, be sure to look at both sides.  Do not make the mistake of assuming you can understand all his ways and thoughts.  After all, if you can understand everything about God, is he really God or a projection of your imagination?