What does it mean when we say that something is too good to be true?

“Too. Good. To. Be. True.”

I understand the English, I just don’t get the intent, the spirit behind the letters.

When we say something is too good to be true, are we actually suggesting that something is “…too good to be true FOR ME?”

If that’s the case, what’s the root cause? At the base, in our quiet time, who do we really think we are and what do we truly believe we deserve? How do we see ourselves?

I thought about these questions a few days ago and this Diane Sawyer quote came to mind:

“Whatever you want in life, other people are going to want it too. Believe in yourself enough to accept the idea that you have an equal right to it.”

Why do we suspect that we might not deserve happiness? Or all the goodness in the world?

I used to do that. Even though I know myself to be a decent person, a child of a King, the friend of a God who shows His love for me through acts of kindness, I unconsciously worried when things appeared too rosy.

Don’t get me wrong, there was a lot in my life I took as my entitlement. A lot of that entitlement though, I linked to my own capacity. I expected to get good grades, took it as my right to the point where a bad grade would totally destabilize me for long periods of time. Because, good grades are my due. I thought they were my due for working hard, being smart, staying focused.

But, how about those other things you get that have nothing to do with you? An amazing partner, an excellent family, favour at work, kindness from strangers for instance? An abundance of goodness can make us sometimes feel undeserving, suspicious, cynical. “Too good to be true.”

Why though? Especially as Christians, if this God we believe in is so good and loves us so much, surely His desire for us is an abundance of life, full of joy, love and peace.

“I come that you may have life and have [life] in abundance [to the full, till it overflows]” –John 10:10  

A too good to be true life.

We often read the phrase “Too good to be true” as so good, it cannot possibly be correct! Why? Because the world is bad and we expect bad things to happen more often than not, so a good thing is met with suspicion?

Or because too much of a good thing is bad, so we’d rather have a little bad with the good for balance sake?

Or are we too afraid of surviving the harshness of a world after a great goodness is taken away so we would rather it be taken now before we get too used to pure joy?

Or is it simply just too good for us, so it either can’t be true or it can’t be for me?

I found some of my sister, Ibiso’s, old diaries this morning. Not long before we lost her, I remember thinking, “We are just TOO HAPPY! Something bad is going to happen and take away this joy we are feeling now. How can any one family have so much love and harmony…God, I am afraid.”

And when It happened, like Job I thought,

“The worst of my fears has come true, what I’ve dreaded most has happened….death has invaded life.”- Job 3

That which I feared the most happened to me.

I know that the plane crash that took Ibiso from me wasn’t stimulated by my fear but by someone’s selfishness, the choice of others to look the other way, that lack of integrity in putting profit before people.

But I wish I knew then what I know now. I wish I had known how little  time we had together. Maybe then I would have put ALL my energy and attention into squeezing out the joy and significance from every single moment, maybe I would have enjoyed even more those times we had instead of worrying that they might not last. I wish instead of thinking with the fear of Job, I had acted with the faith of David when David said;

Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? ¹⁹ … Do you deal with everyone this way, O Sovereign Lord?^[c] How great you are, O Sovereign Lord! ²⁰ “What more can I say to you? You know what your servant is really like, Sovereign Lord. There is no one like you. We have never even heard of another God like you!… Your words are truth, and you have promised these good things to your servant. For you have spoken, and when you grant a blessing to your servant, O Sovereign Lord, it is an eternal blessing!” –King David, 2 Samuel 7:22-End

God’s promises are never too good to be true. His word IS truth.

The End.