Few years ago I read an interview with a retiring bishop. He was asked what he would like to be remembered by. He said that it’s not important that he would be remembered. But he hopes people would remember that God is good. Amen to that! It’s not really about us, it’s about God! Because God is good – all the time!

God is all mercy and grace—
not quick to anger, is rich in love.
God is good to one and all;
everything he does is suffused with grace.  
God gives a hand to those down on their luck,
      gives a fresh start to those ready to quit.  
Generous to a fault,
you lavish your favor on all creatures.
Everything God does is right—
the trademark on all his works is love.
(Psalm 145:8-9,14,16-17, MSG)

Sometimes I am asked why I believe in a loving God when the world is so bad and broken. But they’ve got it all wrong. They are focusing on the evil in the world. I want to focus on the good in the world. What would I do in this shattered world if I could not be embraced by God’s grace? How could I go on living without becoming cold, bitter, hard or a combination of all three? With the words of Henri Nouwen “Our life is full of brokenness – broken relationships, broken promises, broken expectations. How can we live with that brokenness without becoming bitter and resentful except by returning again and again to God’s faithful presence in our lives.”

We need God so badly. We need God to be alive. We need God to breath life and more life into us. We need God to be able to love. God really is our everything. But with God we can do anything. Because God’s loving care is more than enough for us. Because we blossom under God’s tender loving care.

All you need is love is one of the famous Beatles songs. I find the sentiment true if we see God as the ultimate love. God is love. God is all we need. Soren Kierkegaard has said it so well: “To the Christian, love is the works of love. To say that love is a feeling or anything of the kind is really an un-Christian conception of love. That is the aesthetic definition and therefore fits the erotic and everything of that nature. But to the Christian, love is the works of love. Christ’s love was not an inner feeling, a full heart and what-not: it was the work of love which was his life.”

My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you cäan’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.(1 John 4:7-10, MSG)

Gracious God,
You are our everything.
Thank you for being beyond good and wonderful.
Thank you for pouring out love upon love
and grace upon grace on us.
Show us how to respond to your love.
Guide us to live in your love and grace.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U:How have you experienced God’s love and grace in your life? How do you respond to people who have trouble to believe in God because of the evil in the world?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim. No matter how hard your life is right now wait for good because our God is good!

Photo courtesy of Colton Kvapil. This post is refurbished from 2010. Linking up today with Unite the Bloggersphere and #tellhisstory.