What Does God Call Good?

Babies, unicorns, blue skies, friendship … I think there are some things we know are obviously good, universally good.

Who doesn’t like ruddy baby cheeks or uninhibited giggles that include enough drool to sop a shirt?

Who doesn’t love the idea of magical creatures and fairy tale visitors that brighten imaginations and give us a moment away from dreary, regular days?

Who doesn’t love sunshine and puffy cotton-ball clouds and a horizon blue enough to name a crayon after it?

Who doesn’t love feeling less alone, having someone to share secrets with, and someone who doesn’t judge you when you wear leggings and call them pants?

But when we look closer, even these hold elements that stretch what we believe around the concept of “good.”

Babies cry, sometimes all night. They can be selfish and easy to love one moment but hard to like in the next. Postpartum depression is real, and so are infertility, the transition to fatherhood, unplanned pregnancy, and the feelings of isolation that come with being suddenly responsible for keeping another human being alive. Kids experience real disappointment when they find out they will never see a unicorn at the zoo or the tooth fairy is mom leaving coins or bills under their pillow. Blue skies are only blue skies because we also have grey skies and rain clouds and tornadoes. We know a good day is a good day because we’ve had enough cruddy ones to tell them apart. Friendship comes with awkwardness, necessary apologies, and fumbling to figure out more about one another, putting ourselves out there to be known and to be entrusted.

We often want two boxes – Good and Bad.

Instead, good is complicated.

Instead, God gives us a giant box called life and a Good Savior called Jesus and says, “Let’s figure this out together.”

Things aren’t so easily separated. We know that this big, wild mash of life we’ve been handed is good because He is in it. God is good, the only thing truly good and never tainted by not-good. But that also means His plans are good and this big mash of figuring it out and doing life with Him is good too. How different would life look if we believed that – the figuring it all out – was good?

There are definitely things we would call not good – pain, heartache, injustice, loss.

With God in them, we can begin to see the goodness He brings to even the junk, the grossness of life, the underbelly, the sadness.

This is what we work through in my study, Good Gifts. This book walks through the Book of James in the New Testament of the Bible and works toward redefining good and redefining what we call good, based on what God says is good, rather than what just feels good or what looks good. When we redefine good to get closer to what we believe good really is, we gain a greater sense of Who God is and who we are, and then we can walk in those beliefs as we go about our lives and our days.

I invite you to study along with me. There are six segments within the study:

The Good Giver

Good Mercy

Good Fruit

Good Relationships

A Good Future

and Good Word(s)

There are free videos, free printouts, and other free resources to go alongside it as well. You read the book and do the study by yourself, or gather a group to walk through redefining good together.

Find everything you need on the Good Gifts page:

Join me for good.

Join me for something new.

Join me for Good Gifts.

Edit: the release of this study has been delayed because of several problems with Amazon. Please be patient. I will keep you updated for when the study will release.

Next up - Not So Simple: The Many Sides to Mental Health

In the meantime - Check out our brief 12-minute podcast overview of Good Gifts

Join the Good Gifts 7 day photo challenge! Post one photo a day, no explanation needed, under each of the following categories:

God, Giving, Mercy, Fruit (or Growth), Future, Relationships, and Words

Start when you’d like and finish when you feel like it. The goal is to help us consider looking at all God offers us as good, rather than only what traditionally “looks good” or “feels good.” Tag @heidigoehmannwrites on Facebook or @heidigoehmann on Instagram or @heidiadventures on Snapchat. Put a link to the study page with your photo if you’d like: https://heidigoehmann.com/goodgifts