Radiant Over the Goodness of the LORD

For several days now I have been “radiant over the goodness of the LORD.” Fleda and I experienced a blessing when we traveled to Columbia, South Carolina last week for the annual homecoming service and covered dish lunch of Greenlawn Baptist Church. I was amazed at how connected we felt to people who were our church family 25 years ago. This was our first church after I graduated from seminary with my doctorate in theology. They remembered us and we remembered them in so many positive ways. It was good to share memories and to reconnect after all these years.
“I am a part of all that I have met.” I don’t know who said those words, but they come to mind as I think of how I was called to serve a suburban church in 1974, went through many joys and sorrows leading that church, and left to come to DeLand, Florida in 1983. The experience shaped me in some ways that I can identify and in others that I cannot see. The people of that church are still in my heart after all these years. I have a deep sense that through it all God was at work for good.
Bob Hubble was our host in Columbia. He picked us up at the airport, rented us a car, set up a drop-in for us to have some time to talk to those who came to see us, took us out to dinner, and then suffered a heart attack and missed the homecoming worship service. He had triple heart bypass surgery on Tuesday morning and called me on Wednesday night just as we at New Hope were going into our prayer time. Do we not live in an age of medical miracles? God is so good.
I listened this morning to Boyd Frank’s message to New Hope recorded last Sunday. He spoke about Jesus as our Good Shepherd and told of how God had surrounded him with care when his first wife died at the age of thirty. His conviction of the loving presence of God in a time of trouble, born of his own experience, enlarges our trust in God’s goodness.
We are living with uncertainty these days because of America’s economic crisis. Whatever is going on in your life, don’t let your heart be afraid. Keep your eyes on the goodness of God. Live out the prophecy of Jeremiah: “They shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD” (31:12).