LEAD. June 2020 | Page 22

interactions with this individual, if you found yourself facing a significant challenge, how quickly would you turn to him for help? How confidently would you reach out to him? And how would you expect him to respond to you? With coldness and indifference? Or with focused love and attention? With goodness? When someone has been faithful over and over again—and you’ve seen it, felt it, and frequently thanked her for it—you don’t need her to part the Jordan River this afternoon to convince you that you can trust her. You already know it. You know her heart. You already believe in her goodness. You’ve been keeping tabs on forgettable things that by their sheer quantity are able to far outweigh even the unforgettable things. of God’s goodness that have been escaping your notice and that might just redeem your trust in His love for you, I’ll be very surprised. I understand if you’re skeptical that something so simple could make any difference. Maybe to you this smacks of head games, a sanctified form of self-talk. Maybe it’s all a bit too sweet sounding for your taste. Yet the reason it’s so powerful is precisely because of the harshness of our reality. Each of us is desperate for God’s goodness. We completely depend on Him not only for His presence but also for confidence in His good intentions. If life were a Hallmark movie, sure, maybe we could treat this cataloging of His daily kindness as if it were all pajamas and hot chocolate and soft Christmas music playing in the background. But being aware of what God is doing in our lives every day is essential to our hope and well-being, and it adds renewed vitality to our relationships with Him. Our relationships with the Lord are the same. The everyday moments, the easy-to-overlook moments, are actually what cement our relationships with God. If you’re up against something hard or worrisome today and you don’t know whether God is good enough to want to hear you or answer you or care about what you’re enduring and needing, could I possibly convince you to do what we did? Find something to write on or in. Any old notebook or piece of scratch paper will do. If in a day’s time you haven’t cataloged for yourself a few fresh reminders If His goodness were only a bonus—if it were capable only of taking our lives from maybe an eight to a nine—then we could afford to schedule this exercise once every few months. But tell me: Does your life sometimes just barely make it into positive numbers? Then if you’re not convinced every day of God’s goodness—and are recording it, along with the date and time, somewhere you can see it—you might not be able to keep your head above zero. I remember reading in the book of Psalms one morning while we were in Cincinnati, and I came across this incredible verse that spoke directly to what my heart was feeling: “When my soul is in the dumps, I rehearse everything I know of you” (42:6, MSG). 22