God is good...all the time?

 I sat quietly in the cozy pew, well perhaps not so cozy,  it was a  church pew, and yes, a church pew is the last one to have a feel of cozy...perchance it's an anti-sleep mechanism, for it is not proper to sleep through the service and other rituals of worship, though a few claim sleep in church is pardonable, for the peace that therein dwells confers upon one the tendency to go into a tranquil trance...until the clergy says amen atleast...but that's beside the point, I sat in the pew, and folks often chymed, 'God is good' with a unison  self reply 'all the time' or the alternative which seems more personal 'I can testify'... I chose to stick to the former, I wasn't sure there was much I could testify about...but somehow I knew God was and is good, I just couldn't figure out which part of my life had been touched by his goodness...I had  my daily bread yes, and so did everybody else I knew...I had proper clothing, had gotten my degree, I had a good job, still needed to find myself a befitting eve, one who would not be beguiled into anything sinister, but look, every other man, woman had the same...

For this reason, I felt obliged to agree 'God is good, all the time'...I just wasn't convinced I had much to testify about his dealings with me...I was very ordinary...mundane...

So I turned to my neighbor, he had a low threshold for repulsion...I figured he needed more grace than I did, or he was more righteous than I was, fiddling in the Holy place...but somehow,  he managed to hold it in, he realized he needed to tame his passions, he needed to be kind...he smiled and turned to me, yet still giving me the cue that I needed not fidget in church...I diliberately ignored his cue...I needed to know something.."you say, God is good, and you can testify...how so?" That was easy ,he quickly replied "I'm alive today..im in good health... I still retain my strength of youth...I have a good family" he should have gone further had I not interrupted "oh I see. I have a near exact fitting list as yours...but somehow I don't know if I'm able to testify. What you have just told me doesn't set you apart, there's myriad with that resume." He looked me in the eye, with some oddity...perhaps I had spoken heresy...but he held it in, he was cool calm and collected, outwardly anyway..."Then you my good friend have reason to testify of God's goodness...you are not down with a fatal illness, you're not bankrupt. You're not a social misfit...you should thank the Lord " he said with a tinge of self fulfillment, more like he had won a soul for heaven..."so what happens to the lame, the ones with terminal illnesses, the pauper, the social misfits. ..are they not bathed with God's goodness?" He didn't like my question but he was more educated in the rites of worship,  he was obliged to respond." They too are under God's goodness" "so what about should they testify,  if I may ask?" I posed the question."they are alive...it's good enough." He affirmed. "Good enough for them? Would it be good enough for you?" I perched through his reasoning. He was at near loss for words. "I would not wish to be in their lot, but that they be in mine...yet, in anycase, the Lord is good...I'm not sure if they can testify to that, but I know he is good" he said...I had drawn out a confession from his bossom.."you're right..God is good, even if we have little to recognize as something to testify. Pain may abound, ills may flourish, but while there be any good , let us acknowledge it as a token of God's goodness" he smiled..I was not so damned after all...God's goodness may be masked up by prevailing ills, yet let us trust that he is good, and that all things, whatever they be, work together for the good to those who love the lord...remembering that the Lord's goodness may lead us in the valley of the shadow of death, yet sooner of later , he shall lead us by the quiet waters, sit us on a decked table, and anoint us with mercy...love...