Is God Good?

"Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few." (Matt 7:13-14)

I suspect that, deep down, we don't really believe that. We don't really believe that the gate that leads to life is narrow and the way is hard and few find it. Why else would we think that "America is a Christian nation"? Why else would we demand that no one question others' salvation? The way is wide and easy and lots of people find it!

Perhaps it's just our way of coping, of managing the horrible reality that many around us don't know Jesus. Many we care about. Many close to us. Maybe among our closest friends, our own family, in our own homes. Now that is a terrible thought.

It's an awful thing to contemplate. Almost as bad as physical death. This is more of a living death, at once both death and, yet, still that glimmer of hope of new life. Most of those I know who have rejected Christ -- different, of course, than those who have never heard -- are what I consider "worst cases." They're immunized in a way. They've heard the gospel, even responded to it in some sense, but never made it their own good news. They often live lives of sin without regret and even call themselves "Christians" even though the evidence -- "their fruits" (Matt 7:16) -- isn't there. Our ability to reach these is seriously blunted because they know. They've heard, they've seen, they even think they get it. They've "tasted of the heavenly gift" and tasted the goodness of the word of God (Heb 6:4-5). They may have received it with joy, but, with no root, they've fallen away. The cares and deceitfulness of the world have choked it out of them, "and it proves unfruitful." (Matt 13:20-22) Some know it; some don't. Some are hostile and some are apathetic and some are oblivious.

People we care about. A daughter-in-law or a son, a brother or a sister, a parent or a grandchild. People that could very well be on that wide way instead of the narrow. People we love. And our words have failed us and our pleadings have fallen on deaf ears if we've tried to plead with them. Or, maybe, we've just let it go. Don't question. Because the possibilities are too horrendous to think about.

Yet, we are not without hope. The hands that shaped the universe, that hold it together moment by moment, are the hands that laid themselves on a cross to save us and the hands that hold our loved ones still. When careful arguments are at an end and words are done and we're left with prayer alone, we ought not shortchange that "alone." Those hands and that prayer is all that have ever succeeded in reaching the lost heart. It has never been our persuasive abilities or clever phrases or even our deepest love. It has always been Him. So we have to ask ourselves: Is God good? If He is good and He is God, will not the Judge of all the earth do right? That is hope that does not disappoint.