Ep 12: And If Not, He is Still Good
Usually I just share my Shownotes, but this episode is so important that I thought I’d share a section of it as I explain a couple Bible verses that we often get wrong and are interpreting incorrectly.
These verses don’t mean what we think they mean…
This is important…
Jeremiah 29:
This is going to sound incredibly controversial when you first read it, but hear me out:
Here’s the problem with Jeremiah 29:11…it doesn’t mean what you think it means. I know, I know, it might be your favorite Bible verse. You may have bought a graduation card with it embossed on the front, or a beautiful canvas from Hobby Lobby ,Altr’d State…or your favorite little etsy shop, with the words scripted as a beautiful reminder. Maybe you saw someone respond with this verse on a social media post after someone mentioned struggling with something, or an athlete or even a friend has it tattooed on their arm. Thing is, and I’ll say it again…it doesn’t mean what we think it means.
This is going to sound incredibly controversial , but most people tell us to read the Bible each day to help us grow closer to Christ, but I think this is super dangerous. Now before you write me off, hear me out: the problem isn’t that we’re reading Scripture – it’s that we’re merely reading and not studying it. By simply reading and not understanding what’s going on culturally, politically, economically, and socially around the time a passage, story, or psalm was written, it’s easy to mis-understand, mis-read, and mis-interpret things with our twenty-first-century perception of the world. Remember, we’re living thousands of miles and thousands of years from ancient Israel. Of course we’re not going to understand by simply reading something by cozying in on our couch with our Bible and favorite beverage (mine by the way is a latte with macadamia milk. So good.).
It’s with this mentality that we need to recognize that we’re taking Jeremiah 11 entirely out of context. Let me tell you what I mean. Ok so what’s going on during this time. In essence, Israel has broken its covenant with God and has done many things against the laws of the Torah. Things like worshiping idols, rampant social injustice and taking advantage of those widows, orphans, and others in the margins). Child sacrifice right outside the temple was even common. Jeremiah warned that God would send an enemy from the North (Babylon) if they didn’t turn from their ways, but they didn’t. And so came the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, and the 70-year exile of its people.
This is why context is important. Here in Jeremiah 29, God is asking his people to grow roots while in exile. He wants them to thrive even when life doesn’t look the way the people of Jerusalem thought it would – or should. Instead of allowing themselves to become entrenched in an attitude of pessimistic mourning, God wants them to learn from their mistakes and live better. But here’s the question he’s asking them – and a good one for us to ask ourselves today… Can we bloom and flourish in a life we thought we didn’t want? One we didn’t plan for? Through Jeremiah, God said: “Build houses and make yourselves at home. Put in gardens and eat what grows in that country. Marry and have children…thrive in that country and not waste away.”
Yes, God has said, “I have it all planned out – plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.” (29:11) But we need to make sure we don’t forget the rest of the chapter…and even the verse prior that talks about “As soon as Babylon’s seventy years are up and not a day before, I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home.”(29:10)
So…if you’re claiming that verse, you need to also claim it while flourishing in a life you didn’t quite expect.
→ So good, right?! And such an incredible reminder?! So will I thrive in this moment? I’m not in exile, but life certainly looks…and gosh…feels differently than I wish it did. Will I still flourish and thrive in it?
Daniel 3
Is it only when things go well – when things go according to plan that God is good?
Is he still good even though I struggle with a disease? Is he still good even though one of my kids is on the spectrum? Is he still good even though another of my kids struggles with clinical depression and still others who came to our family at a later age from across the globe have significant trauma? Is he no longer a good God because of things like this, because sometimes the Lord allows hard things to happen? For brokenness to occur?
Ok so hold on, let me give you a little background since you probably don’t have a Bible in your lap like the ladies reading the devotional will…In Daniel 3, we read of the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. This was always a favorite story growing up, because the excitement and adventure of going into a furnace and to be killed, only to come out unscathed because God was secretly in there with us, was just so darn cool. As I’ve grown older though, it’s the words of verse eighteen that stops me cold. Put in context, King Nebuchadnezzar sets up a massive gold statue 90 feet high and 90 feet thick, and upon command to the royal musicians, every time the royal music plays throughout the kingdom, every race, color, and creed is to fall to their knees and worship the gold statue. The decree states that anyone who does ot kneel and worship shall be thrown immediately into a roaring furnace (3:6).
After hearing of three young men who refused to do so (because they only bow to the One True God), they are commanded to stand before the king himself. Thus brings us to my favorite verse in this chapter. After telling King Nebuchadnezzar how little his threat means to them because of the strength of their God and how, if he desires it, he has the power to rescue them from the fire. “But,” And here’s my favorite part –verse 18 “even if he doesn’t, it wouldn't make a bit of difference, O king.We still wouldn’t serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.”
That’s where I hear him whisper beneath his breath, “But if not…he is still good.”
So here’s what I want us to remember: every difficult season we journey through will strengthen us in some capacity. The strength or the “good” we wanted isn’t necessarily what we received – and yet, each and every time, he will mold something good in us through it. God is good and loving. Circumstances can’t change who he is at his very core, what his very essence is made of.
Like anything, we need to find the good in it, or the bad will become all-consuming. Lyme has taught me to slow down, it has taught me to create more margin, it has taught me to enjoy little wins, it has taught me empathy toward others who also have chronic disease or chronic pain. It has also taught my children empathy. It has been a great reminder that just because someone is smiling on the outside, we have no idea what’s truly going on on the inside. It’s taught me to ask more questions and check in with my strong friends.
So yes, today I feel crappy. Today my husband found me 10 minutes before one of my coaching calls back up in bed in the fetal position. Yes, he had to put cozy socks on me and joked that it was supposed to be several decades before he cared for me in this way. Yes, my body feels like its 95 years old today and I had to give myself an injection for the first time in my life this morning. And it was both horrible and empowering.
Would I like to be healed? Of course! That’s why I’m going to this incredible doctor, that’s why I’m taking the medication and the supplements and eating the way I do. It’s the reason I’m staying active and getting a lot of sleep and creating margin in my life and doing all the things! And yet…if not, He is still good.
I don’t like feeling like a 95 year old woman. I wouldn’t choose this. And yet, it doesn’t take away from the fact that my God is awesome and amazing and incredible and does awesome and amazing and incredible things.
Including awesome and amazing and incredible things in my life.