"I will sing of the goodness of God"

In these crazy days of pandemonium we are all facing, I think it’s important to look back and remember God faithfulness in the past.  I love the terminology in 1 Samuel 7:12: “Then Samuel took a stone and…he named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”   Today I want to share an “Ebenezer” from my life.  Before my first birthday, I developed a horrible disease that caused me to have seizures.  My parents took me to the children’s hospital multiple times, yet there was only minimal improvement.

Things looked bleak until April 24, 1982.  In the midst of another hospital visit, my heart stopped; I was clinically dead for three minutes.  But God wasn’t done with me yet; He breathed life back into me.  Miraculously, after returning to the land of the living, all traces of my seizures, and the accompanying disease that caused it, were gone!  All these decades later, I have not had any seizures since!  I cherish the gift of life every day, but it is in the month of April when I feel a visceral gratitude in my heart.

Several years ago, I gave an oral presentation for a college assignment at Colorado Christian University.  I shared this April 24th story with the class.  And then I asked: why did God choose to heal me?  Why did He choose to grant me life again?  In part, my answer was Psalm 139:16.  This verse says, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”  When my dad passed away, my mother and I were helped by this verse.  We knew that Dad entered his afterlife the exact day that God had ordained. The same idea is true for me. I have lived through life-threatening situations because there are still more days determined for me.

Now, please don’t misconstrue what I’m saying here.  I would never advocate being reckless, irresponsible or thoughtless, simply because a Bible verse says that God ordains all our days.  That wouldn’t be a wise course of action at any time, but particularly in these days of insanity thanks to the covid-19 outbreak.  But ultimately, I can assert to God what the Psalmist did in Psalm 31:15: “My times are in your hands.”  I’m going to have my reunion with Dad in Heaven on the very day God intends, not one day sooner.

Let me conclude with this.  Jenn Johnson has written (and performed) a beautiful song called “Goodness of God” that has been popping up a lot lately.  I love to sing this line of praise to God from the song.  It goes like this: “All my life You have been faithful; all my life You have been so, so good.  With every breath I have been given, I will sing of the goodness of God.”  In the midst of all this chaos and pandemonium, I celebrate God’s goodness and faithfulness.  That helps me face whatever tomorrow holds.

   

Kevin