“Transformed by the Goodness of the Lord”
Today’s “3-Minute Retreat” from Loyola Publishing was wonderful. (You can access it for yourself at https://www.loyolapress.com/retreats/enjoy-gods-goodness-start-retreat, accessed 03-04-2019). It was a meditation on Psalm 27:13.
“I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living!” (English Standard Version)
The retreat master writes,
“What a wonderful mantra the psalmist offers! Try repeating this belief statement as you go through a typical day. We most often see what we expect to see. Do you expect to see the Lord’s goodness as you go through the day? It takes many forms: a surprise phone call, a random act of kindness, some unexpected good news, or the daisy growing through the concrete. We are invited to go one step further, however. After we see the Lord’s goodness, we are challenged to enjoy it. That means slowing down to take notice. In this way, we are changed by what we see. Give yourself the gift of being transformed by the goodness of the Lord.”
Indeed, Psalm 27 has many beautiful things in it, but it also acknowledges that the world is a dangerous, scary place. In fact, in the verse that immediately precedes the one about seeing the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living, the psalmist pleads, “Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes, for false witnesses rise up against me, spouting malicious accusations.” (Psalm 27:12 English Standard Version) Affirming the LORD’s goodness does not mean that we are blind to the obvious badness in the world.
The sun is coming up just now, lighting up the snow-covered pines in my neighbor’s yard. There is incredible goodness and beauty in the world, even when a polar vortex invades the month of March. I’m not sure polar vortexes are actually evil, but they may seem so when we are all looking for spring and new life.
Nevertheless, we can see the goodness of God, if we choose to do so. And we are all capable “. . . of being transformed by the goodness of the Lord.” But such transformation is a gift you give yourself, a gift that I give myself. And if I give myself the gift, I can also be transformed to the point where I can give the gift of God’s transforming goodness to others that I meet along the way today.
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