I don’t know about you, but whenever I hear someone use the term, “Good Lord,” I immediately doubt whether that person is a Christian.
You know what I mean, “Well, I’m just leaving it in the hands of the good Lord,” or “The good Lord moves in mysterious ways,” or my favorite from Bishop Bickering in Caddyshack: “The good Lord would never disrupt the best game of my life!”
When I hear the adjective “good” inserted before “Lord” I immediately think the speaker is using it as a talisman–like call the Lord good and he will reward you.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always felt this way since I became a Christian.
Then I saw this headline yesterday, “Sanford: Comeback race in hands of ‘good Lord’ and voters.” The Sanford referred to is the former governor of South Carolina. If you haven’t heard, for six days in June 2009 while governor he disappeared and no one knew where he was. His staff told the press he was “hiking in the Appalachians.” In reality, he was schtuping in the Andes…and with someone not his wife. Now, Sanford is back and he’s running against Stephen Colbert’s sister for the vacant U.S. Senator seat for South Carolina.
The election was yesterday and while he was waiting for the results he said, “I don’t know whether I win or lose. But I’m at peace with sort of where I am of that larger notion of you go out, you try the best you can, and then the final verdict is in the good Lord and the voters’ hands.”
Now I don’t know, maybe Sanford had a miraculous conversion and became a Christian, but I doubt it. In fact, Sanford was recently charged with trespassing on his now ex-wife’s property. No, I suspect Sanford was just throwing out a few “Good Lords” in an attempt to pander to the evangelical Republican base. Maybe it worked; this morning I saw that he had won the race. Even if Sanford did become a Christian I wish he’d keep his “Good Lords” to himself, or at least save them until many years after his conduct has convinced the public that he really does believe the Lord is good.
But enough about Sanford. My point is the “good” part isn’t necessary and it is usually a give-away that the person is a poser. Have you ever heard anyone say, “I would like to own a good Ferrari?” There is no such thing as a bad Ferrari and by adding the word “good” merely shows that person doesn’t know Ferraris. You see the point. GS