For many years of my young middle adulthood, life was smooth. Not perfect, obviously — when you raise a family of six on one ridiculously modest income, there’s always the stress of making the mandated property tax, insurance payments, and assorted fees involved in living in a “civilized,” bureaucratic regime.

We can be free to bask in the warmth of God’s love — as we seek Him, let us seek that. Enchanted, original oil painting by Steve Henderson; licensed print at Framed Canvas Art, Amazon.com, Art.com, Great Big Canvas, and iCanvasART.

But life was relatively predictable, and God was good.

I knew that latter because people were always telling me how good God is, and how much He loves us, and how He is always there to meet our needs. Given that most of our needs were being met adequately through sources considered standard and expected in our society, I really had no need to put my foot on the waters, step off the boat, and see if He would catch me.

But the one constant thing about life is that it never stays the same, and when circumstances blew in, they didn’t leave us much option about stepping off the boat, since they pretty much overturned it and left us hanging on to the sides. At this point, the goodness of God lost it theoretical usance and it became very, very important to know that it is truly real, and something upon which we can depend.

He is, indeed, someone upon whom we can depend, but getting to the point that we understand this is a process that can take a whole lifetime to undergo. This is not the impression, however, that we get from many Christians who look askance, horrified, when we admit that we’re frustrated with God, wondering if He hears our prayers, doubtful that He will answer them.

Well gosh, we’re human.

If you’re human, too, and find yourself questioning God, and His goodness, and His love for you, please read the rest of the article, Grasping the Goodness of God, at my BeliefNet column, Commonsense Christianity.