God is good… All the time.
All the time…God is good…
The saying is part of the Calvary Church culture, that finds its reality outside the television world and in, I’m sure, enough congregations to make it seem like home. At least it did to me.
So… what happens when God’s goodness competes with persistent sickness of a believer? Is God good all that time, too?
Turns out a couple at Calvary Church is navigating this idea—God’s goodness, illness, and the “God has a plan” mentality. They are split between what I call brute faith—which has nothing violent or savage about it–and the reality and drudgery of persistent sickness. One half of the couple still believes God is good, the other doesn’t deny that, but thinks letting go would be good for their son, and realistic.
This episode touches on the idea that churchly positivity can seem insensitive and trite in the face of incessant, insistent, persistent, and painful sickness. In this case, it’s the couple’s young son. So how does one figure out God’s will for a young child who has never seen a good stretch of health—ever?
His name is Joshua, born premature with excessive and persistent health problems. Doctors warned them ahead of time that their boy would have health challenges. The husband was willing to let him go, because he didn’t want his child to suffer. The wife wanted to give it a chance because they had failed in previous attempts to have a kid.
After he was born, Joshua had a surgery that almost took him out, so the wife called Bishop… And decided to keep pressing toward health because Bishop told them God had a plan for the little boy’s life.
Only health didn’t come.
Grace seemed bothered by the excessive positivity that, in this case, didn’t seem realistic. So she told her dad not to give the couple false hope, but to pray for God’s will to be done instead.
The boy died.
But not before his mom vocalized that she just wanted her boy to be okay… whatever the outcome of yet another surgery.
Meanwhile in the Greenleaf mansion, another couple got good news, while another is struggling to hold on.
While Kevin and Charity find out they’re having twins, Jacob is griping to their therapist that Kerissa is giving him a hard time about a trip to Las Vegas to attend a bachelor party. So the therapist asks Jacob if he understands the root of Kerissa ‘s concern: the fact he has a relationship with a side chick—and he doesn’t even want to discuss that in couples’ therapy.
So Coby throws his wife a bone. He says he’ll give up the side piece if Kerissa lets him go to Vegas.
Only he sends a text to his wife thinking it’s his side piece… and it made for an interesting scene around the Greenleaf’s prim and proper dinner table.
Charity and Kevin were getting ready to announce their good news, when Kerissa slams the phone on the dinner table and announces Jacob’s affair with Alexa. She knew about the side thighs—but didn’t know Alexa’s were part of Jacob Greenleaf’s menu. She apologizes, asks Kevin and Charity about their news… Poor Charity… her joy bubble all popped, made the announcement… the joy all squoze (intentional spelling) out of her happy. Nice timing.
Kerissa ’s home life is wack, so she pushes her instructors extra hard for improved test scores. Isabel is teaching at Excellence now, and says she’ll do her best. She does something that, as a former teacher, I KNOW is all up against any proctoring rules. She doesn’t give students the answers, but nudges them pretty hard in the right direction. I get the feeling whatever happened in this scene or the idea of active answer nudging during tests will resurface in the Greenleaf storyline.
Other notes:
Lady Mae visits board members trying to get them to come back after Bishop ignored their opinions about a Back the Blue tribute at church.
Grace and Sophia talk about recordings of Faith that Sophia found in her dead aunt’s old room. Sophia tells her mom she listens to the CDs because what Faith says makes sense to her. Sophia wasn’t raised to be really religious—mostly attending church a couple of times a year. Seems she’s having a spiritual awakening of sorts.
Jacob goes to work the next day looking for Alexa and learns Bishop fired her. He also finds out his daddy is relieving him of his responsibilities because he doesn’t think Jacob is ready for leadership. “I’m sittin’ you down,” he tells his boy. In the Black church (maybe in other churches about which I don’t have sufficient knowledge) that means mofo can’t serve no ‘mo, can’t be in front of nobody no ‘mo. In this case, Bishop chose to sit Jacob down for 90 days. Jake thinks he would still have a role if Grace weren’t back in town. Jacob thinks Grace is going to take its place, and told his daddy so. Then Bishop kindly informs him, “Son you have no place.”
Hot Diggity dog, that’s harsh. But at least he still has a sweet mansion to live in. Meantime, Lady Mae is covering for Jacob’s sit down by saying her son’s priority is his family and he’s spending extra time with them.
Secrets and lies, secrets and lies in this-here church.
Meantime, Bishop works to get Connie Sykes back on the deacon board. She agrees only if Bishop dedicates a pew, complete with shiny gold nameplate to Kenny Collins, the teenage boy who was shot and killed by Officer Nelson.