"...all that is high is not holy..."

What if a group of people was made to believe that the world was a cold, dead place? That is, this group of people was taught, from childhood, that there was nothing beyond physical phenomena. And though their heart might yearn for meaning, they were told that you can't ask a rock for meaning. This group of people might learn to repress their hunger for God by scolding themselves for being intellectually weak and assuring themselves of their superior reasoning skills.  

And then suppose, after years of eating naturalist cardboard and breathing positivist dust, this group of people was somehow awakened to a deeper, more spiritual understanding of the world in which they found themselves. Then, any fruit would seem appetizing, any brightly-colored perspective appealing, and any explanatory cosmology sensible.

This, I think, is how many who have been suckled by post-modernism respond when they break the shackles of the “cold, dead universe” worldview. They regard any spirituality as good or any support for traditional morality as godly. For some that might look like jumping on Oprah’s quasi-spiritual bandwagon. For others it might look like falling into lockstep with Glenn Beck’s God and country shtick.

"For all that is high is not holy: nor all that is sweet, good; nor every desire pure; nor is everything that is dear unto us pleasing to God."  Thomas A' Kempis, "The Imitation of Christ" (pg. 112)

God is not good. Good is God.

God's text:
[18] Let this be recorded for a generation to come,
        so that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD:
     [19] that he looked down from his holy height;
        from heaven the LORD looked at the earth,
     [20] to hear the groans of the prisoners,
        to set free those who were doomed to die,
     [21] that they may declare in Zion the name of the LORD,
        and in Jerusalem his praise,
     [22] when peoples gather together,
        and kingdoms, to worship the LORD.
 (Psalm 102:18-22 ESV)

my very loose paraphrase:
God transcendent condescended to redeem the damned for his own name's sake and glory.

my response:

What is the distinction between God's will and my will? In choosing to trust him I don't agree to a standard of trustworthiness but to a Person beyond my comprehension. Not all of his choices will make sense to me or conform to my sense of goodness. The life and work of Jesus are astounding demonstrations of his love. But, that he loved Jacob and hated Esau, that we were born cursed to die, and that some children suffer neglect, abuse, and/or rejection while others are privileged and indifferent, are, in the least, beyond my understanding. And more, God's wrath as I read it in the Bible sparks fear and trembling at the thought of being an object of his holy anger. In the end I am left with a decision to humbly acknowledge or dismiss his sovereignty. What I never can do is assume that since he has proven his goodness to me he is worthy of trust. God is not good. Good is God. I have been offered peace and reconciliation to the living God, but ultimately I must choose whether or not to abandon myself, not to That which is beholden to a finite description of love, but to That which defines love.