A couple months ago I went down to North Carolina to help with the cleanup efforts after hurricane Florence. For the first couple days, we were gutting out houses from all the water damage. Many of the houses were not affected from the storm as much as they were from the storm surge after as the waters kept rising. We were in the middle of ripping out the wall and sub-flooring when our team leader came through and said “Looking good guys! Looking good!”

I chuckled to myself. Good? Good is not how I would describe any of this. None of the houses with flood damage look good. Half the walls have been ripped out, flooring is gone, nails are sticking out of the wall, and it’s a royal mess as we are tearing apart a house.

But, good is relative.

Now I know what he meant. I know he was referring to working hard and completing the job we were there to complete. It didn’t look pretty. It didn’t look good. But it was good.

It got me thinking, how often do think the same about things God calls good? Do we shake our head at what God calls good or does God shake His head at what we call good? Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

God does not think the same way we do. THANK GOODNESS!! I may not appreciate it at the time, but God calls good what I often do not, while not calling good things I do. It’s hard at times to see people and circumstances as God does. It is so easy being fully submerged in this world, to get distracted from God and what is truly good. But as always, God knows best and His ways always work out for better.

For me, it’s hardest to see how God is good and means good when it comes to my personal life. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” So often we have our own idea of what “good” means. Often the tendency is to define “good” according to what we see as good for us. But God cares more about the person we are internally than about our external circumstances. Sometime that means gutting who we are and remaking us into the men and women He created us to be. Just like the house we were gutting, it’s not always a pretty picture. But it is necessary work in order to rebuild us into something better and stronger!

It’s never pretty when God begins His work in our lives to build us into the men and women He wants us to be. It’s often a painful and long process. There are parts of us that need to be removed and they are parts of us that need to be built and developed. It is often a tough and grueling process to be crafted closer to the image of God. But boy is it good!