Week 4

I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living. (Psalm 27:13)

It is not easy to see the goodness of God in the land of the living at the end of February in Wisconsin, at least not in the natural world. By this time of year the bloom is off the rose on the landscape of winter. The snow is dirty, the trees remain leafless, and everything else seems lifeless. The yearning to see signs of new life in the coming of spring grows stronger with every passing day. The goodness of God is not readily apparent but I have faith that it is there if we only know where and how to look.

This week's 11 miles training run took me from my house towards Lake Mendota and on from there to downtown Madison before I turned and headed back toward home. As I was running along the lakeshore path that skirts Lake Mendota and wondering about seeing the goodness of God I remembered something a gardener friend told me. He said that some of the most important growth for plants and trees happens at this time of the year. Under the ground, out of sight all kinds of activity is taking place – root systems are growing and renewing themselves and bugs and microbes and other stuff in the soil are doing their jobs so that when Spring comes the plants and trees are ready to burst forth with new life.

This thought led me to consider what is also happening out of sight in my body as I train for this marathon. Every time I work out my muscles are tearing and rebuilding themselves, and my blood vessels, heart and lungs are growing stronger, doing what they need to do to respond to the ways in which they are being pushed beyond their previous limits. All of this important and much needed goodness is happening in my body out of sight and it won't really be until I cross the finish line of the marathon at the end of May that I will reap the benefits of all of the effort I am pouring into this endeavor now.

It is possible always to see the goodness of God in the land of the living but it in not always possible to seeitwith our eyes. Sometimes, we have to operate in faith trusting that the goodness is there even when it isn't visible. Even if it's not possible forus to see goodness in dead-looking trees and last year's brown and dried grasses and plants doesn't mean God's goodness isn't right in front of our eyes. It just means we haven't yet figured out how to perceive it.

We learned this week that the one Haitian student in our Haiti Partners SPARE program that we thought had been killed in the earthquake is actually alive in a hospital in Ivory Coast, Africa. She was taken there to receive treatment for extensive head injuries two days after the earthquake. She is badly injured and in need of significant medical treatment but she is alive.

This made me wonder how many other stories like this are there now unfolding of people who were taken all over the world in a desperate attempt to save their lives who had no identification, who family members are assuming are dead and who will be treated, hopefully healed and then what? This situation only reveals the tip of the iceberg of what I can imagine is the complete chaos of people's lives and of the situation in Haiti with so many nations and agencies and organizations responding with resources, supplies, assisatnce of all kinds but with no coordinated effort or centralized system of keeping track of who is being served and who is still in need.

Even in the midst of all of this chaos and confusion I believe we cansee the goodness of God in the land of the living and that we will continue to see God's goodness in Haiti and now in Chile and in every other place where people try to care for and respond to one another with love and compassion. We may have to train our eyes and hearts to observe things differently, to give others the benefit of the doubt and to trust that even in the midst of pain and sorrow, even when things appear dead and lifeless, God's goodness is all around yearning to be seen.