I always get a bit annoyed by the old trope that goes along the lines of “If I’ve only learned one thing in this life . . . .” Of course you’ve learned more than just one thing. Or at least I hope you have.

But I will say one of the main themes that I have learned time and time again is the goodness of God.

God is good. Period.

The danger is making my experiences and my feelings the litmus test of God’s goodness to me. If I base how good I perceive God to be based on what I see and how I feel, I will get a very narrow and me-centered view of God.

So many people walk away from God because they make themselves the standard for how God has to act. His goodness is based on how they’ve felt Him or seem Him, and when they can’t feel Him or see Him, He must be absent or uncaring.

The real test is God’s Word. The test is every one of God’s promises that He has ever made. And do you know that God is batting 1.000? For all the non-baseball readers, that means God has kept every single one of the promises He has ever made.

God is good even when I don’t see it. God is good even when I don’t feel it. I don’t see the big picture — more like about 5-10% of it. If I could somehow see it all, then I would never doubt. Then again, I’d never need faith. And my brain would probably explode from information overload.

So faith tells me God is good when my senses and my feelings tell me otherwise. And if my memory were better, it would tell me the same. God is good.