I like big buts

Now that I have your attention.. hehe. Well actually, there was a funny banter about Luke Danes' butt in Gilmore Girls. I was watching a couple episodes today to see if they had any scratches on the discs, and that scene came up. Really, Lorelai and Sookie were just trying to make Luke feel uncomfortable.

Neither here nor there..

I was blessed to sit and listen to Judi Peterson this past weekend. She joined the 12th grade girls' small group one evening during Powderburn. Amidst the 2ish hour conversation, something so simple from what she had spoken seemed to stir in my head more than everything else.

You know when something bad happens, and we say, "But God is good"? Like when you hear someone say, "I have been diagnosed with cancer, but God is good." Or maybe it comes switched around. "I know that God is good, but I have been diagnosed with cancer."

Judi talked about how when we use that "but", we're really suggesting that something about God is not good or loving.

What we're really saying is, "I know God is good, but He's really not by the fact that I now have cancer." "Where did He go when my dad died?" Or, "How can He say He loves me when my heart is broken?!"

We're using the wrong conjunction. We're modifying the truth of God's goodness by our complaints, thus subtracting from His lovingkindness. She talked about the story of Job, where he and his friends were essentially trying to find the cause for Job's suffering. When God responds in the end, there is evidence that maybe God isn't so cause-and-effect as we are prone to think. Remembering something I had recently learned, Western thinking is highly influenced by Greek philosophy--logic defines a lot of what we do and how we do it.

But God (ironic) responds differently to Job by asking him loaded questions. Read here.

The right conjunction is "and." We may not understand what happens; we may not understand most circumstances in life. And God is good. We may even cope with this terminology more easily than say a woman dying of AIDS on the other side of the world. I could not imagine being able to say "and God is good" in that moment. Nonetheless, it is true.

It is not right that she has to suffer. And it is important to note that the suffering comes from a broken and sinful world, not from our Lord. This is where a good "but" could be used:

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. BUT because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:1-5)

Let's throw in one more since it's so good.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. BUT God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)

These buts are different because they are speaking of our former nature God salvaged us from. The present sufferings believers go through doesn't always have to do with who we were as much as who we are going to be. May we now say, "Here is what we're going through, and I know God is good."