The Favors of The Lord I Will Recall, Isaiah 63: 7

Dan Doyle

Our emotional and intellectual views about the world and life are shaped by listening to the news or by an increasingly addictive immersion in the weird realms of social media. Especially now, with the burgeoning expertise of AI, it becomes harder and harder to tell the difference between reality and AI manipulations of reality. Because of these things, we may very well be experiencing deep feelings of angst and fear. Our views about the world and even humanity clearly have become more negative and divisive. But are we really getting a true picture of reality in these things? Is there a different way to look at reality?

Christians believe in Jesus Christ, his death and Resurrection. This is why we have reason to respond to that question with a resounding, “Yes!” Because of the reality of Jesus Christ, we have reason for this affirming attitude, not just because it is written in the Bible, but because we have, on occasion, seen and experienced its effects in our lives, and the deeper our faith becomes, we become more able to see God’s presence and goodness all around us, and we desire to live it in our daily lives.

We are not naive. We are not strangers to the reality of evil and its lures, both in the world and within ourselves. We live in this world after all, and we struggle with it like everyone else. But in faith, we do not shy away from it. We commit ourselves to go out into the darkness, to confront it, however imperfectly, by bringing the light of Christ into it through living the faith openly, and believing that God’s grace and mercy will give us both wisdom and strength. We know that, as individuals, we have neither the competency nor the power to change the world. But we have the power to choose every day to live in the light of Christ, in our families, our work environments, and our neighborhoods.

This is why this passage from Isaiah struck me so deeply today. It reflects the proper perspective and attitude we can and should develop within ourselves as we engage in this daily struggle with the realities of evil in the world, both globally and personally. It is what we choose to look at and engage with that counts. “The favors of the Lord I will recall, the glorious deeds of the Lord, because of all he has done for us (for me); for he is good to the house of Israel (to me and my household). He has favored us (me) according to his mercy and his great kindness.” Now, that’s a different attitude!

Undoubtedly, there is evil being done in the world, and the resulting suffering is overwhelming. If that is where we choose to give all our attention, our inner life will begin to dwell in that dark place, and the danger is that we might begin to mimic it with our own responses and choices. Rather, we need to practice the art of looking for the good. In reality, there really are more shades of good in the world than shades of darkness, despite what the news or social media presents to us. We need to practice seeing the good in ourselves first, and then to try to see it more and more in others. Where the good is not so evident, we need to meet it, however imperfectly, with our own imitation of Christ and his love and mercy, his forgiveness and righteousness.

I will be honest with you: I struggle to achieve this attitude in my own life. It ain’t easy, as they say. But choosing to try, choosing to do the hard work of developing that attitude, for God’s sake and for the good of our neighbors, is all God asks of us. He will not leave us unaided in our efforts. His grace is generous, and his love is free. It all comes down to our attitude. Attitude is everything. Our attitude toward God will shape our attitude toward our fellow human beings and the world. If our attitude is as expressed in the passage from Isaiah above, we might begin to see more “light” than darkness; we might begin to see the good that he has given each of us personally in our lives. We may also be better able to see the good he has given to creation for the good of humanity. We begin to treat our neighbors and the world with more care, driven by a desire to experience and promote good and avoid evil.

Yes, the struggle between good and evil is real, and we are all smack dab in the middle of it. But it is a worthy struggle for we who believe that we are made in the image and likeness of the Creator. Our Christian faith encourages us and strengthens us when we willingly and knowingly surrender our imperfect wills to the perfect Will of God in all things. We believe in God’s faithful and infinitely attentive love for us and for all of his Creation. Let us, then, practice walking our talk with confidence in God’s grace and mercy. Look for the good in you and in the world. That is the attitude of God. It is the attitude that God wants us to bring with us into all that we do.