Ultimately, I believe Him, though there are times when the opposite appears to be true.
But I can see the goodness of the original design in Creation; I can see the beauty of a lake trout or the cascading mountains, or even a sunrise.
Below is a photo taken by a friend of mine and it rightly shows why my home state is called 'Almost Heaven.'
It echos God's handwork on the earth.
God is the greatest artist and what He paints in creation, He also designs in our lives; yet, our lives do not always reflect the goodness which is at the core of the universe.
When I hear sounds, they are an echo of the natural beauty and worship that once existed throughout Creation.
Music as we know it, is a man-made creation patterned off the natural worship of creation. For example, at this very moment, I am listening to Franz Joseph Haydn and his symphony demonstrates the beauty of what music can be.
Later, I may, though not likely, plug in an album from Ozzy Osborne, thereby giving my ears an experience they will soon not forget.
Our variation of music can either be worshipful like it was intended or it can sound horrid and reckless; similar to the the state of our souls when separated from God.
Human evil and deviant free will may mar what we have been given as good; but all is good because it was created as such and still is good at its core.
Simply but, most things we know are good things perverted.
Yet I am thankful for those things which God has blessed me with that have not been tarnished to an extreme degree by our fallen world.
For example, I have a friend in another part of the world whom I met a few years ago when activated to service in Germany.
In the photo to the right (for which she will probably kill me), it is a moment in time before I was sick, though I was trending that direction.
We had planned a MarriageCare event on base for interested spouses. It was taken one evening at that event.
It was in that time that we really grew to appreciate one another and the gifts the other person had as a Christian servant of the Lord.
Though separated by a half a world, my friend is still just that, a friend; a person whom I grown to love and respect because of who she is and what the Lord is doing in and through her life.
In short, our relationship was not and is not marred by what many relationships have been ruined by - our fallen nature. And if I had to describe our relationship I would say it is one of mutual respect; not because of what we are in and of ourselves but what God has developed us into becoming.
As it is true also of my wife, I would be certain that it is true of her husband as well.
But while this relationship reflects much of what God intended our friendships to be, there are other relationships in my life that do not.
And it is in these relationships where I can see where much in the world does not seem good; but I know I must look beyond the obvious negatives and search for the original good in that person.
As this is true in our relationships, it is also true with the rest of the world.
In my particular situation, I lost an enormous amount of weight, had dark circles under my eyes and ached in various places throughout my body.
These were all warning signs of Adrenal Cancer.
As of now, I've swung the extreme other direction, gained a massive amount of weight - almost to the point where I waddle up to the pulpit and ache in new places.
Surprise - it's a warning sign that I have a huge tumor in my spleen.
These warning signs are good, they are protective and reflect back to the original good because of our built-in defense system.
In your life, the obvious negatives may be a callus, a blister, a fever, cough, or some type of pain; all of these demonstrate the human body's protective response.
Without these warning signs, which are crucial to our healing, we would live at great peril and risk.
In a similar manner, emotional pain has an underlying good; that good is fear.
Our inner fear keeps us from being too reckless or even from being too lonely because we will seek out safety and one another respectively.
You see, all the best things in life come from our yearnings; not from our satisfactions.
I desired to help people deal with dying, as I was told to be dying - thus this blog was born. I wasn't satisfied with 'having lived a good life;' I wanted more and I fought.
But I didn't fight for myself.
I knew the worst thing that could happen to me was heaven; as a blessed friend of mine reminded me during that time.
I fought for my children and wife; I wasn't satisfied in things ending that way. I was blessed; God moved and God healed.
I have learned that we tend to suffer most as we love most; we recoil from death because we want to keep living.
If indeed a Holy God created a good world, as I believe that He did, something as went horribly wrong. Generally what humans have touched have gone sour.
Sadly, we live in a world where modern technology repeats daily the fall of Adam and Eve.
Mankind has mastered the atom; and we nearly obliterated ourselves.
We have unlocked the genetic code; and we unlocked a box of ethical problems unheard of a generation ago.
We have expanded agriculturally throughout America from the east to the Great Plains; thereby creating dust bowls from depleted natural resources.
We have harnassed the miracle of combustion; and then killed one another with fast moving weapons of mass destruction.
Mankind has even found a way to link the world through the internet; only to find the most popular item downloaded and sites visited are pornographic.
It seem that every new frontier, every new advance - it simply introduces us to a new fall.
But the great hope of humanity is that we can be redeemed; rescue being one of the most common and greatest themes of the Bible.
In Germany, a friend of mine took this picture outside of what is called 'Constantine's Basilica.' It once stood as a throne room for the Emperor in the Western most Roman City of Trier, Germany.
The Basilica was bombed by the Allies in WWII and nearly destroyed.
On the inside, there are busts of the heads of the Four Evangelists and of Jesus. They were nearly destroyed as well.
Yet, nearly 70 years later, an evangelical church meets in this former palace.
In a real sense, the place has been redeemed and resurrected to new life.
That is the end to which all believers are moving - a resurrected, new life because we have been redeemed.
While we may not know in this life what it is to live without pain, or the threat of cancer, or the threat of war, or even the common challenges of every day life - there is a time coming after redemption that everything will change.
It is true that we keep our scars in this life, but they are only to remind us of what tragedy might have taken place so that we will not repeat our mistakes.
All of history is moving toward a resolution.
All good we experience here is only a glimmer of the original design of the Lord.
And knowing what things can be and are at the core, what a wonderful day it will be when we are resurrected to a new life and forever to be with the Lord.
Until next time, go win one for the good guys.
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