Good Good Father

"You're a good good father. Your perfect in all of your ways to us."

Listen to Christian radio long enough or step inside a church and chances are you will hear these words being sung. They come from a recent song written by Pat Barret and Tony Brown and made famous because it is sung by Chris Tomlin. The song is aptly called Good Good Father.


  I stood in a church this weekend with several hundred students and adults singing this very song at a youth conference. It occurred to me while we were singing, that this, like so many other songs are easy to sing without ever realizing exactly what you are saying. The first line of the chorus is simple enough, God is a good father. That's great, He is, He's always got what is in our best interest in mind for our lives. But,then you get to the bridge 'You're perfect in all of your ways to us.' That sounds awesome and it isn't wrong except there is a catch. If He's perfect in all of His ways that means when things in our life are going smoothly and it also means when nothing is going right and tragedy strikes.

If we are going to sing it you need to mean it. We need to understand that His ways are perfect always because He is a completely sovereign God that works for His glory and our good every moment of every day. We will not stand smiling or weeping at any given moment that He is not aware or in control of everything that is happening. There is an incredibly intimate but simple reason that when bad times come, and they will, you can say even then that He is a good father and is perfect in all of His ways. That reason is a relationship with Him. You can't know that and understand that without knowing Him. You can't have the peace of knowing that everything will be ok even when it feels like anything but without knowing the one who gives that peace.

 He is a good father and perfect in His ways when cancer is the diagnosis at the doctor.
He is a good father and perfect in His ways when we lose someone we love.
He is a good father and perfect in His ways when you lose your job and have no idea how bills will be paid.
He is a good father and perfect in His ways when life-long dreams are shattered in a single moment because they aren't in His will.

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."-Romans 8:28

  Our good for His Glory. That means we go through trials and our faith is strengthened. He is glorified by our reactions and  actions. He is glorified as He works in our lives to provide the daily grace we so easily overlook as well as when healing takes place. That good means if it is how He is to be glorified, and how we are made to be more like Him, the life we wouldn't choose is lived in faith that He is working in us.


He is good when things seem hopeless. He is the only good. He is perfect when our lives seem like messes so large they cannot be useful or make a difference. He is good and perfect even when we are in pain. He is there in the midst of it all, we don't always see it, and we certainly do not always understand it, but He does nothing that will not in some way bring Himself glory and grow us in Him.

Good. Perfect. Faithful. Powerful. Love. Gracious. Merciful. Sovereign. Almighty. Lord.

Our God is many things and as the song says He is a good father who does what is best for His children. We might not like what that good is but we can trust Him when it comes. The one who spoke and created the stars and breathed life into dust and man came to be, who brings to life dead men and woman daily, knows what He is doing.

Lest we forget everything was perfect until we screwed it up in Eden. We don't have the best track record when it comes to making decisions for ourselves. There is a reason He is the one in control. Lean into that. Trust Him. Like any good father He works and it is done in love.