Today is a special, amazing day – Good Friday. The day Jesus sacrificed His life so fellowship between God and man could be restored. Wow. What a day!
The thing that caught my attention is the word “good.” We call it, “Good” Friday. Why? I mean come on, Jesus died on Good Friday. Not exactly what I would have defined as “good” if I were one of Jesus’ followers observing the crucifixion 2,000 + years ago. So what did I do? Well… like any great 26-year-old researcher, I decided to Google it. Here’s what popped up first:
“Good Friday” comes from the obsolete sense “pious, holy” of the word “good”. Less common examples of expressions based on this obsolete sense of “good” include “the good book” for the Bible, “good tide” for “Christmas” or Shrovetide, and Good Wednesday for the Wednesday in Holy Week. – Wikipedia
After doing a little more research, (reading approximately 3 more articles) I found Wikipedia kinda nailed it. Jesus dying on the cross is a Holy day. It is a God-filled day. So yeah, I guess it can be called a “Good” day. It makes me think of Genesis 1 and the Creation narrative. You know, where God creates and over and over the writer communicates, “God saw that it was good.”
Yesterday I listened to a Podcast many people have suggested I listen to back in 2018. I finally started… in 2020 #procrastination. The second episode is the reason for this blog and wow… I mean WOW WOW WOW! My brain is shattered and my soul is SO FULL!
I highly recommend you check it out. I’ll post the link at the bottom of the page in case you are interested, but as a heads up, all of these thoughts stem from the BEMA podcast episode: Trust The Story.
Anyway, the audience listening to Genesis 1 for the very first time would have been the children of Israel at Mt. Sinai. They had just come out of Egypt and out of slavery. As a slave, their worth was pretty much determined by how many bricks they could produce. If they couldn’t make bricks, they were of no use or value to the Egyptians. As a slave they didn’t get fair pay, retirement, dental, or weekends off. They were bottom-dwellers. Until God told them otherwise.
The very first lesson God teaches His people is He is Creator, and they (aka, we) are the CROWING MOMENT of His creation. We are Valued, we are Loved, and we are GOOD! God does not value us based on what we can produce, He values us because He calls us valuable! Then, He introduces the concept of Sabbath and rest to His people (a concept that would’ve been foreign to them) and tells them the reason He rested on the 7th day was to enjoy His creation. Because it was very good. We usually replace “good” with the word, “perfect,” however perfect, described by the Podcast, carries a static, western concept. The original writer was trying to communicate a dynamic, full-of-potential, and an exactly-as-intended kind of idea. Obviously, this Hebrew word is packed with more than meets our American eye. By God resting, He was teaching His people something deeply important. Rest becomes our acknowledgment of what God says is true: that His economy is structured around His goodness. He desires His people to enter into the same rest. Where we slow down, remember who were are to God, remember how He defines us, and enjoy Him. Sabbath is all about remembering how we are so loved and so valued by our Creator. (Jesus reminds us of this again in Matthew 11:28-30).
Sound like a message our western culture needs to hear?
The Podcast went on to describe our culture, especially our American church culture, as one that begins with Genesis 3. You know, the fall of man and how we are all guilty before God. But loooooong before Genesis 3, is Genesis 1, where God lays the foundation of His message to us as well as the foundation of His relationship with us and it screams, “You are valued, you are loved, and God calls you good!”
This, for me, is why I call today Good Friday even though the day itself seemed to be a dark, sad day full of defeat. And it’s why I can call every day good regardless of what the day brings. Because God’s economy is good, He works everything together for good, and every day is founded upon his Goodness.
I haven’t addressed this on my blog yet, but just over 3 weeks ago my Squad and every other World Race Squad got pulled off the mission field due to COVID-19. We re-entered months before we were mentally prepared, and we came to find our country hurting/reeling from the pandemic. Essentially, we have a lot of human reasons to define our situation as, “not good.” We have a lot of evidence that would seem to support the conclusion: these are “not good days.” So why is it I can choose to believe and see every day as good? Well, because God is good and calls me good EVERY SINGLE DAY! God’s creation story speaks this truth just as His crucifixion story speaks this truth – we are called good, and we are worth the sacrifice so that His good in us can be restored.
Our society has deemed today, “Good” Friday and you know what, it’s a good name because it’s a good, holy day indeed. Jesus dying on the cross, then 3 days later defeating death is good. Perhaps not what our western idea of the word good has in mind, but on the day of the cross, God communicates what He’s been communicating to His people from the beginning – we are worth it. We are worth redeeming! We celebrate that He has chosen to restore the crown jewel of His creation, to bring us into His rest, and remind us that He has deemed us good.
Good Friday. A day that EMPHASIZES in BOLD LETTERS our identity in, and worth to our Heavenly Father.
Wow. What a good day.
BEMA Podcast Link: https://bemadiscipleship.com/session1/1
Hey – read part of this post. Great! Now that you are back in the USA, what are you doing? Are you working, school,..? Do you have any plans to go back on the race if it goes back? What are the possibilities of that happening? Have you considered working full time with Adventures? This is public info – Johnfrank will be leaving aim soon. You could work in the video/marketing department. But you probably will have to raise some or most of your support. Just keeoing in touch. It is Friday but SUNDAY is a coming!!!!
Hey thanks so much for reading! I’m currently praying about immediate next steps, but also enjoying my time resting for now. I do believe God is asking me to squad lead again in October so that’s a fun faith builder haha. We’ll see what happens with AIM from now until then. I appreciate the compliment and yeah, I heard Johnfrank is moving on… crazy. I’m not sure if that’s for me but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about it haha. Thanks for keeping in touch. Happy Easter!
Kyndie!! Thanks so much. Love and miss ya!
Wow! Thanks so much! Haha it’s a pretty good podcast. I gotta keep listening to deem it great š …jk. I’m a new student and I LOVE it! Thanks for sharing the riches God has allowed you to discover!
haha I certainly shall! š
You’re welcome! You are loved, valued, and GOOD indeed!! Love ya
Connor, this is SO GOOD. now Iām even more pumped to go listen to this podcast. Thanks for sharing and reminding us what today was and still is all about!
Great post! Sounds like a great podcast š Thanks for the shout-out, Connor.
By all means, keep listening!
The solitude of the pandemic has played havoc on my temperament, it is refreshing to be told again, even in this testing time “You are valued, you are loved and you are good!!” Thanks.