#59 / It's All Good

I am not a fan of the "it's all good" concept of life. In fact, while I'm not certain about it, I tend to give some credence to the idea that there are active powers of evil present in the world and hard at work: the so-called "principalities and powers." In terms of the "it's all good" concept, though, check out Bob Dylan's take, if you are not already familiar with the song. I think he gets to the essence of the overstatement inherent in the "it's all good" claim:

Big politicians telling lies
Restaurant kitchen, all full of flies
Don't make a bit of difference
Don't see why it should
But it's all right, 'cause it's all good

Lying politicians, like flies in the kitchen, are emphatically not "good." Acknowledging this insight, another problem does arise when some authority or another asserts the right to pronounce upon what is "good," and what is "not good," and to make us all toe that line. Organized religions have a way of doing that, so let's hear it for the Establishment Clause and the separation of church and state!

Genesis 1:31 finds God looking over the world He has just created, and pronouncing it "all good." But that's not the world in which we most immediately live. I am pretty sure that there weren't any lying politicians in the Garden of Eden, and it looks like we can't get back there to check for sure.