“It’s all good” is an increasingly popular lie.
The phrase entered the vernacular before I was born, in the 1950s, and it grows, according to Google’s Ngram Viewer, a tool that charts the frequency of words and phrases (ngrams) within a corpus of scanned books and other digitized texts.
"It's all good" gained popularity in the 1990s, particularly in hip-hop culture, and was widely used in casual conversation to convey "everything's okay" or "no worries."
Rapper MC Hammer’s 1994 song was titled “It’s All Good” in the album "The Funky Headhunter,” making it a defining part of the era’s slang.
In 2001, the National Basketball Association adopted “it’s all good” as its slogan to convey that all NBA basketball is good. The slogan bombed. The league wisely reverted to its old "I Love This Game" slogan.
Today, “it’s all good” pops up on social media (captions, comments, memes, etc.) — often to convey a relaxed, positive, or “chill” attitude, especially in response to minor setbacks or awkward moments.
When you get to be my age and have insomnia, you think about and research such things at 3 a.m.
You won’t see or hear “it’s all good” from me.
Romans 8:28 tells us, "In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
This doesn't mean all things are good—but rather that all things, even painful ones, can be worked together for good in the hands of a sovereign God.
Consider Joseph in Genesis 50:20, who told the brothers who had sold him into slavery: "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."
One of my father’s maxims was this: “Hindsight is 20/20.”
It took me years to understand what he meant: You see your life more clearly in the rearview mirror than through the front windshield.
With 20-20 hindsight, I can see the consequences of my decisions and the circumstances that led to the twists and turns of a life that has yielded unexpected fruit:
A girlfriend breaks my heart, paving the way to the amazing woman I now call my wife.
Chronic pain from decades of psoriatic arthritis (now healed) slows me down to the point of constant frustration, making me less productive but more compassionate toward others in pain.
Getting fired at age 50 doesn’t end my career, as I once feared. It is the beginning of my transformation.
As a man with three adult children, five grandchildren and a “side gig” coaching men over 50, you might think I have found the answer to the philosophical “problem of pain.” I have not.
C.S. Lewis wrote,
"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."
Can you hear me now?
God uses pain to prod you toward your destiny.
Sometimes it takes looking in your rearview mirror and praying about something to see, with hindsight, how God worked it for your good.
Try this sometime:
Reflect: Choose a painful moment from your past
Quiet yourself: If you're open to it, ask God for insight
Trace the good: What positive outcomes—especially relationships and personal growth—emerged from this?
Record your insights: Journal or create a video reflection
Thank God for what he did: These insights become anchors of hope during new seasons of suffering
It’s not all good. Evil exists and persists. But God will use it all to guide you to your purpose, no matter what your age may be.
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