Perhaps you know the chorus, “God is good all the time. All the time God is good.” It repeats the same message over and over, but it is to validate the message.  As I was reading one of Max Lucado’s books, he queries, would we consider God is good if God chose to do something which is not good? As I have struggled with trials in my own life, I know  “yes, God is good all the time”, no matter what comes.

I find it most interesting that people often choose to judge a sentence or two from someone’s volumes  of their life story and determine that person is negative.  It is similar to when people misread a note or letter. The person reading words on a page doesn’t always understand what the writer is thinking. They can’t see whether the writer is smiling or frowning, happy or angry. They read “just words.” If the reader receives the message as negative do they desire to fully grasp the context? Do they pick up the phone to converse with the writer for clarification on the text?

Do those that judge know the entire life of someone stating the facts and issues of their current status?  As I’ve shared previously, one of my volunteer positions was filled with individuals with broken hearts and lives. If I chose only to “read the words” without understanding it would be “lost in translation.”

The bible is filled with ugliness brought about by other humans, but God allowed it for His good and His glory. How can we know the beauty if we never knew of the unattractiveness? My life has been filled with the same kind of situations; some very unpleasant, but some which God made beautiful.  When I carried countless bruises on my body for years from child abuse, it was so that as a Casa, I can understand the pain of those dear children’s lives.

There are aspects of history which we all despise. Yet it happened. As we hear it over and over, it is a reminder of what was and is now? I have followed several Christians on Facebook whom have endured horrendous challenges. They shared the heartaches of their lives; telling their stories over and over, often times for years so they could “share the message.” It was “reminding” others that God would and could bring beauty to the hideous aspects of their lives.

As I hear people judge others when learning of life’s hardships, I realize the judges perhaps never had to endure the “malevolent side” of life to understand there will someday be beauty among the “muck and stink.”  As my pastor stated several weeks ago, when God chooses to reveal His plan for His good and His glory, nothing can stop Him.  I Chronicles 16:34 NIV, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.”