Interpreting His Goodness

Photo by Sam Williams on Unsplash

In my previous roles as a Rehabilitation Coordinator, I would frequently work alongside Health & Safety Managers. Prior to this, I had the impression that Health & Safety was about keeping a tidy work environment. Which no doubt makes some difference. But these aren’t typically the kinds of hazards that may cause someone to die whilst on the job, a phenomenon that still occurs in our modern times. Through exposure to these very well-educated managers, I learnt that the biggest hazards are falling from heights, incidents involving machinery and many more that we just don’t have the room to discuss in this small blog. One of the most interesting concepts I learnt from a Safety Psychologist was the concept of situational awareness. It may be a fancy terminology for something quite simple (what makes you present and aware of what is happening around you), but these Psychologists had come to understand the specific inner workings that make a person engaged with their surroundings, and therefore more aware of the immediate risks associated with the activities they are completing. Frequently included in those discussions was the idea of complacency. The more complacent a person was in fulfilling their tasks, the more likely they were situationally unaware of their surroundings.

I’ve often thought about how situational awareness applies to our faith. A few days ago, I found myself complaining to God about aspects of my life that I’m still not quite satisfied with. And it dawned on me, that I was only critiquing my life against the things I was situationally aware of at that moment. If I were to fully psychologically engage with all aspects of my life (including the now eternal nature of my life) and look beyond those parts for which I have developed complacency, I would probably be blown away by God’s consistency in blessing me.

Good things really do happen every day. The fact that we can pay a bill is a good thing. The fact that we can live comfortably with warmth and protection is a good thing. The fact that we have cars to get around in, is a good thing. It’s all good, and it’s all been ultimately given by God. We like to take credit for what we have, but even just a short examination of our personal history reveals that so much of what we have received in this life begins with the circumstances we are born into and the opportunities we are given (for which we often have had no influence).

So the issue is not, that good things don’t happen. The bigger factor is how we choose to interpret what happens. We are highly interpretive beings. We simply underplay this aspect of our humanness. We are constantly interpreting every aspect of life and our surroundings. We declare one thing good. One thing bad. We interpret everything, even ourselves: Am I a good person? Am I liked? Do I have value? We interpret our social standing: Am I as important as that person? Do I earn enough?

We simply become so distracted by these questions, and our interpretations of what we see…that we miss the most important question that true situational awareness would provide: Do I see what God is doing in my life? Have I observed it, acknowledged it and declared it good? Because what we interpret, may be significantly more important than what actually happens.