December 5: Don't Miss the Goodness

Rebekah Hastilow, Guest Services Director

“The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him.”

Lamentations 3:25, NIV

There is a cognitive phenomenon that involves failing to perceive something because your attention is focused elsewhere, it’s called Inattentional Blindness. The most famous study asked subjects to watch a video of people passing a basketball around and count the number of passes. During the video, someone wearing a gorilla suit would walk through the scene. Afterwards, the subjects were asked if they noticed anything unusual. Half of them said they did not see the gorilla in the video, despite it being right in front of them. 

I would venture to say that many of us experience Inattentional “Spiritual” Blindness. We get so caught up in our busy lives and so focused on ourselves, that we are blind to God’s goodness that is all around us. Lamentations 3:25 isn’t telling us what we have to do to qualify for God’s goodness or that He is only good to certain people, but rather that we need to be looking for God’s goodness in order to see it. Oftentimes, God’s blessings can be like the gorilla in the video, right in front of us, yet unseen. It's hard to be thankful to God for the many ways He is good to us, if we keep missing His goodness. 

December is such a busy month. There are parties to plan and attend, gifts to buy, family coming to visit and so much more. And yet, Advent itself is the very opposite of all of this, it's a time of expectant waiting and preparation and slowing down. During this Advent season, take some time to intentionally seek out and appreciate God’s goodness - in your life, in the lives of the people you care about and in our world. 

God, I pray that I don’t miss your goodness in my life, today and everyday. Amen

---