It’s All Good…What Does This Mean? … On this Hump Day I am hoping to get us over a ‘hump’ of a common retort when something is going well and we spout out “it’s all good.” I think these past few weeks I’ve heard this retort 20+ times and I just want to gag-really! You are having a conversation with someone and they share a trial or problem and you ask if you can help, “nah, it’s all good.” But by their tone you know it isn’t and they know that you know. Honestly, can there be a ‘good’ outcome with a retort that is almost defying God instead of embracing God’s goodness?

Defining the word ‘good’ contains nouns, adjectives and adverbs. As an adjective, it means “a favorable character or tendency, relied on, conforming, satisfactory…” Used as a noun it is predominantly “something useful or beneficial…’ and used as an adverb, it is “they showed me how good I was doing” (and other similar content). Looking at these Webster’s dictionary definitions, where does “it’s all good” come into play? It doesn’t, not one bit.

In our faith-life, we use ‘good’ for a variety of things. Those with faith often say we have a good God, a God who is always good, and a God that works for the good for us. But unless you are teaching a Bible study on this, most folks tend to think of ‘good’ as something that is indeed good for you but when they say “it’s all good” it usually isn’t but they just cover up something that isn’t going their way which leads us to the problem of defining a good God when things aren’t going so good.

Does God permit tragedies, perils, and mayhem? Yes, he does and we often wonder why, especially when he unleashes Satan to create mayhem! What we forget is that God doesn’t allow Satan to triumph. We find this promise in Romans 8:28 [NIV] : “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” When we don’t see the good we are forgetting that God promises to render beauty out of “all things,” not “each thing.” The isolated events may be evil, but the ultimate culmination is good.

Here’s an interesting psychology question for us regarding the give and take about ‘good.’ When you sip on a cup of coffee and say, “This is good,” what are you saying? The plastic bag that contains the beans is good? The beans themselves are good? Hot water is good? A coffee filter is good?’  (OK, go ahead and laugh, I did, too!)

Sounds silly, but if we relate this properly it tells us that the coffee is good because all the ingredients worked together! It’s a collective cooperation of the elements and voila, your cup of ‘joe’ is delicious. Now let’s relate that to our lives and how we practice our faith each day. If we don’t work together things don’t work and then that snarky “it’s all good” is almost like a slap-in-the-face-to-God-retort.

Nothing in the Bible would cause us to call a famine, cancer, or a terrorist attack good. In the Ukraine is it good—not at all but the good in the people and their faith are incredible! These are terrible calamities, born out of a fallen earth due to our sins, yet every message in the Bible compels us to believe that God will mix them with other ‘ingredients’ and bring good out of them. The stories of Ether and Joseph always come to mind on how God brings out the good in something that is bad. Joseph’s words to his brothers who did not do good to him should resonate with us as well.

“Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you? You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.” (Genesis 50: 19-20 NLT)

In closing, we really have to let God define ‘good’ because in our world it never really has been “it’s all good” and never will be until God takes us to our heavenly home. Until then, we will define good around health, comfort, recognition, finances, etc. God’s definition? Think about it this way: in the case of his Son, Jesus Christ, the good life consisted of struggles, storms, and death. But God worked it all together for the greatest of good: his glory and our salvation—so that we can say with joyful words “it’s all good, all good indeed!” AMEN.