Hello, 2020! And hello again to my faithful and ever-so-patient readers here. Last year was a period of writing from a place of rest for me, so sometimes there was a long pause between posts. I think it was better. I hope you felt each post had meaning in some way that was useful to your life and circumstances.

I don’t know what your year was like or what the year ahead holds for you, but I know from so many people who have felt the suffocation of bad religion that sometimes it’s hard to want to hear from God at all. If He exists, is He good?

I know it's difficult to swallow when times are tough, but God is always good.

Sometimes it seems as if God isn’t there, and if He is, He certainly isn’t concerned with anything good going on in our lives. At least, He’s not preventing anything bad from happening to us, and that makes it difficult to want to spend any time with Him. Most of us desire to see God as a good, good father, but many of us struggle to see Him that way. Too much has happened for us to want to slide our hand into His and trust He is who He says He is.

The truth is, I can’t convince you that God is always good, but God can. It might take your whole entire lifetime to get there, and honestly, it might be beyond this life on earth before you see God as good. That’s okay. There is no time limit on growth.

If you’re a parent or an aunt or an uncle or someone who loves a child, you know that there are moments when a seeming lack of growth in the life of the child can be frustrating. I think we think God gets frustrated with us as we do with a child, but nowhere in Scripture do we see Him saying, “Are you kidding me? You don’t get it yet? What’s wrong with you?”

In this way, God shows His goodness. In a million other ways, too.

We see Jesus redirect his disciples when they show their lack of understanding, and we can smile a knowing smile when he seems to be rolling his eyes as he tells them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?” (Mark 4: 13) But he doesn’t walk away and abandon them. He listens, speaks, prays for them, and leaves the Holy Spirit to be their constant guide and support.

If you’re struggling to see where God is good, when God is good, and how God is good, stay right here. I’m going to take some time to focus on the goodness of God. It’s okay to struggle. No one here is judging you for that, least of all God Himself.

Here’s how our focus will go:

Each post should only take you about 15 minutes to complete. Probably less.
Beyond the 15 minutes of reading and answering a few questions for yourself, whatever God brings to your heart and mind the rest of the day is the really good stuff.
Lay down the guilt. God has beautiful truth for you here, but there is no time frame, no requirements to complete it, and no prescribed homework.
Suggestions are just that: suggestions. If you want to go deeper or read more, go for it. If you can barely lift your Bible, then may all the grace of God pour out upon you. It’s His work, not ours.

At the end of it all, I’ll put every post together into a free download that you can give away or reread or whatever. It’s for you, so do what you like.*

Ready to go? You’ve just completed Day One, so good job!

*unless you take my name off of it and put yours on it, in which case that would be stealing and I would have to hope your guilt eats you up inside until you recognize your need for the Savior. Or take legal action or something.