the top button.

Then Moses said, “Now show me Your glory.”

And the [Father] said, “I will cause all My goodness to pass in front of you…”
Exodus 33:18-19

It happened. The same thing happens again and again in this place, I learn lessons that I thought I had nailed down for a long time. The goodness of our Father, that’s a new one. Growing up in a small town and in the church, while I am ever grateful and thankful for it, did lead me to have perhaps a false impression of the general state of the world. It’s bad, y’all. Some of you know that because you’re not quite as sheltered or just as self-proclaimed optimistic as I am. Generally, I enjoy seeing only the best in people, to my own detriment sometimes.

I had the opportunity recently to glean some wisdom from someone whom I greatly respect. It met me right where I was at. In living over here, I don’t know if it’s because it’s a different culture, different worldview, different perspective, or merely a different lifestyle, but it is much easier to see the world with a more realistic perspective. I feel the weight of the fallen-ness (mine and mankind’s) in a way that I had not yet realized. It can leave you questioning, well scratch that, it had left me questioning.

How can You see all this happening and remain as You are? How can You send Your own Son for this mess? How can You know and not act? How does this work, Father, because I KNOW You are good, but I can’t see it?

Enter Psalm 73.

“Truly [He] is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked…”

Asaph’s being totally honest. He knows of Father’s goodness, but he’s struggling. He writes on to talk about how he just sees desolation, wickedness, and slander. And Asaph, man, he just can’t see it. He knows it, but he can’t see it.

”But when I thought how to understand all this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of [Father]; then I discerned their end.”

Good job, Asaph. Go into the sanctuary. Isn’t that what we all need? To go into the sanctuary. Fix our eyes on JC, and look at eternity. Their end is not our end.

Asaph resolves,
“Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but You are the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
And…
“But for me, it is good to be near [Father]…”

Stay with me for a few more minutes, friends. I love the progression. I know Father is good. I can’t see it, but I know it. I’m struggling because of all this wickedness, my own and in the world. I go into the sanctuary. I ask Father to reveal Himself. He shows me. There is no one but Him, and then for me, I see Father is good. He is good, and for me, He is good.

The transformation that the goodness of Father has in our lives is imperative to seeing.

The Father uses His goodness to proclaim His glory.


Just like Moses, when he asked to see Father’s glory, what did Father show Moses?
His goodness.


That’s the core, the central truth to all of it. That’s the basis for all my other judgments of the attributes of our Father. This greatly respected man I was telling you about, he calls it “the top button.” Like when you’re buttoning your shirt, how did you learn? Do you start in the middle? Not normally, because then you wind up at the end with an extra button or an extra hole and the two sides of the shirt are out of whack. You start at the top when you button your shirt, so that everything lines up, even until the end.


His goodness has to be the top button. Then, when things knock you down, when conflict or struggle or battle comes, when this world is overwhelming, your top button is still buttoned. His omniscience, His justice, His mercy, His omnipotence – they all come through the lense of His goodness. He is good, and I don’t know how this current mess all plays out, but I know the end. I know He’s good. His goodness proclaims His glory. And that’s what He’s all about.


The top button is buttoned.