With the basketball championship having ended, I was reminded of a professional basketball player from years ago who brought glory to God—in his life and in his death. Do you remember Pete Maravich?
When Pete Maravich died in 1988 at the age of forty, many were stunned, including me. “How can God be good?” I lamented. “Pete is serving the Lord, bringing many to Him. God can’t be good to do such a horrible thing!”
After an autopsy was performed on Pete, the coroner determined he died of deterioration of the tissues in his heart because he was born without one of the two artery systems that supply the heart with blood. Doctors were amazed! Pete Maravich should not have lived to be twenty, much less forty and play record-breaking basketball! Tweet That!
Now God’s goodness seemed vindicated by that news. He had given Pete Maravich twenty more years than he should have had, plus the time to come to know Him as his Lord and Savior in 1980.
At that time I learned a lesson. God is always good, regardless of what I think.
We’ve all said things like, “The Lord is so good. He answered my prayer.” Or, “The Lord is good. He provided a job.” I’ve said those things, too, but inside I wondered, “If He hadn’t provided that job or answered that prayer, wouldn’t He still be good?”
God’s goodness is not dependent upon our evaluation of how He works in our lives. That’s hard to accept when we hear of thousands dying in a flood or a deranged man shooting twenty to death. “Is God good then?” we ask.
Yes, He is. This world is filled with evil and horror, but it is not of God’s making. He works regardless, wanting everyone to know Him so that they can spend eternity with Him. There are no guarantees that everything we experience will measure up as “good” in our estimation.
Yet, God is still making right choices, offering love, supplying mercy, and being good.
What does it mean that God is good? Here’s one way of saying it: God’s goodness is how He makes the best decision in every area of your life. Tweet that! What He does brings benefit and wholeness.
Just as Psalm 25:8 says: “Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.”