Why do bad things happen to good people?
This question is maybe one of the hardest in theology and in life. It has been asked in one form or another by people throughout human history and by people around the globe. The world observes people who are truly "good people" and ask the same question in different ways depending upon the circumstances.
- Why do "good people" become victims of a disease or a natural disaster?
- Why do "good people" get caught in the crossfire of acts of "random" violence?
- Why is it that the "good" young men and women of our country have to die in a war against religious fanatics bent on the destruction of freedom and devoted to the subjugation of the world to their ideology?
- Why do otherwise innocent children get abused - mentally, emotionally and physically by an older person who is in a position of authority over them?
- Why does the young, Christian teenager with a promising future get killed in a car accident?
- Why did my marriage fail after I, a "good Christian", tried so hard to make it work?
- Why did an "innocent" driver (a "good person") get killed by a drunk driver?
I'd be the last to try and explain away the hurt and anguish we feel with a handful of pat answers even if they are Bible verses. But I can offer some perspective I have learned in living through my own grief and life traumas. While we cannot possibly know all of the details associated with any individual circumstance, we can know and understand some critical truths from Scripture that provide stability, comfort and strength in the midst of our own times of suffering and that help us understand the reason why bad things happen to good people.
First let’s look at Some Faulty and Incomplete Explanations for the Presence of Suffering
Many answers have been given in an attempt to explain the problem of human suffering. Many of these answers are very wrong. The Book of Job illustrates this very plainly. Job's wife, his friends, and his acquaintances grappled with the question of why Job was suffering. They had plausible sounding, glib answers; but they were wrong! Look at the answers they gave to account for Job's suffering.
- "God has sent it.” This was the answer Job's wife gave. She felt that God was causing Job's agony and so she urged: "Curse God and die." (Job 2:9) People often accept the same explanation for suffering today: "God took my loved one!" "It is God's will" for some tragedy to occur. Natural calamities are called "acts of God." But it is absolutely false to say that all suffering is sent by God!!! Job's sorrows were not inflicted by God but by Satan! It is most emphatically not true that God is responsible for all suffering!
- "God is punishing you." This was the response of Job's three friends: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. They were not bad men. They meant well but were tragically mistaken. They argued that all suffering is the direct and sure result of sin. "Whoever perished being innocent?" they asked. (Job 4:7) They counseled Job to admit that he had sinned and that he deserved what was happening to him! Now, there is sometimes an element of truth in this explanation. Sometimes we do suffer because of sins. Paul told the Corinthians that many of them were weak, sickly, and dying because of their sinful abuse of the Lord's Supper. (1 Corinthians 11:30) David sinned and as a result his baby son died. (2 Samuel 12:13-14) Sometimes people do suffer for their sins but we make a grave mistake when we assume that all suffering is the result of sin. When Jesus died on the cross two men died with Him, suffering for their sin. But Jesus was without sin. He suffered in innocence. Many people do today. Jesus once healed a man born blind and when asked whose sin was responsible for the man's blindness, He said: " Neither this man sinned, nor his parents, but... that the works of God might he displayed in him... " (John 9:3) Innocent people suffer without having deserved it!
- "God is trying to tell you something." This was the explanation given by a young man named Elihu for Job's trouble. He was impatient with Job and his three friends because they couldn't see what he thought were obvious. "God is trying to teach you a lesson," he said. "Man is chastened with pain." (Job 33:19) This is sometimes true. God taught Paul humility by refusing to take away his "thorn in the flesh." (2 Corinthians 12:7-9) But it was not the total answer. It did not apply in the case of Job. It does not always apply today!
So…Why Does God Allow His Children to Suffer?
The Bible gives several insights into this question.
- Some suffering is built into the universe. God made this world in a certain way and in a sense suffering is woven into its very fabric. God has natural laws, which order and maintain our world. Powerful forces are unleashed by the working of these laws. We can get caught in the machinery that drives the universe. If we get in the way of God's natural laws we can get hurt: floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc. Jesus said, in John 3:8 "The wind blows and no man knows where it goes." The way the universe is built allows for some suffering to happen.
- Some suffering is self-inflicted. God has both spiritual as well as natural laws. When those laws are violated, we suffer the consequences. God made man a creature with freedom of choice. We can choose evil or we can choose good. We can make mistakes, blunders, and wrong choices. And we suffer for it. We speak of breaking God's laws; but actually we don't break God's laws; we disregard God's laws (natural or spiritual) and they break us! We don't "break" the law of gravity by jumping from a huge skyscraper; we disregard it and suffer the consequences!
- Some suffering is passed on from others. Sometimes our suffering is the result of choices and actions of other people. Other people can misuse their freedom of will in such a way that it harms us! "We have met the enemy is he is us." It is men who riot and rape and kill and lie. Men like Mao or Stalin or Hitler can plunge a whole nation or a whole world into suffering. Because God did not make us senseless robots, but men and women capable of choosing good or evil, we will go on hurting others and being hurt by them.
- Some suffering represents the rage of Satan. It was Satan who afflicted Job! Paul calls his thorn in the flesh a "messenger of Satan." (2 Cor. 12:7) The Bible speaks of Satan causing disease (Luke 13:16) and having the power of death. (Hebrews 2:14) It was Satan who trashed God's creation by unleashing sin, disease and death on the world. Let's never lose sight of this. Satan hates those who seek to do right and will do all in his power to hinder and oppress them. Suffering and calamity may be an indication that you are on the right track and Satan is trying to derail you!
- Some suffering is educational. (See James 1:2-3; Romans 5:3-5) Suffering can confer spiritual insight; it can teach us patience and can build character and strength. It can prepare us for greater service. It can knock a lot of nonsense out of us! Illness, for example, may lead us to see things in a clearer light than we ever did when we were going through life without a care! Troubles are the tools that God uses to fashion us for better things.
- Some suffering is therapeutic. It may make us better people; it may lead us to repentance; it may discipline us spiritually. " It is good for me that l have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes." (Psalm 119:71; see Hebrews 12:6-11) God may permit suffering for the sake of our spiritual health and well-being!
Suffering may arise from a variety of different causes--perhaps from a combination of causes or from causes we cannot even understand. (Job was never really given an explanation for his suffering!) We cannot easily look at any experience of suffering and put our finger on the "why" of it!!! But in a sense why is the wrong question! There is so much we do not know. Suffering is beyond our fullest comprehension. We need to tum to another question that is far more important!
How Should We React to Suffering in Our Lives?
- We must remember that suffering does not defeat or thwart the purposes of God. Hold on to Romans 8:28 - " And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." We think that there should be a plan that we know and understand. But that is often not the case. We don't see everything like God does. What if the car that hit the power pole was being stopped from going 100 yards down the street and running down a little girl? Belief is about putting your faith in God not in your own knowledge. Faith is about knowing that He is in control and subordinating self will to God's will. The "plan" might be to get us to asking questions. It has been for me. It might be to strengthen us for worse things. Then again it might just be that pesky "free will" where cause and effect are happening. It is easy to lose sight of the good that is happening if we focus on the bad. Yes, sometimes bad things happen to people who seem undeserving of them. But God allows things to happen for His reasons, whether or not we understand them. Above all, however, we must remember that God is good, just, loving, and merciful. Often things happen to us or friends or family that we simply cannot understand. However, instead of doubting God's goodness, our reaction should be to trust Him. ”Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight” Proverbs 3:5-6
- We must remember that the important thing is not "why" suffering comes, but "how" we meet it! Suffering can make us bitter or better. It will do one of the two. It is up to us! The real question is not "what's behind my suffering?" but "what's in me?" We can use suffering as a tool for improving our lives or as an excuse for getting mad at God! Tragedy, disaster, sorrow, and calamity do not frustrate God's purposes. Our goals and purpose should be His. Our problem is that we look at things from the wrong side. My wife Kathy is a quilter. If you look at the work from the bottom of the quilt it seems to be only a tangled mass of threads and bits of cloth before the batting and quilting. But on top a beautiful design is being worked out in an intricate pattern. God did not send Paul's "thorn in the flesh"--Satan did; but God used it for Paul's good! Paul was a better man because of it. No matter what happens, God can arrange matters so that it fits into His pattern!
The poet has said:
My life is but a weaving
Between my Lord and me,
I cannot choose the colors
He worketh steadily.
Oftimes he weaves in sorrows,
And I in foolish pride
Forget he sees the upper
And I the underside.
Nor till the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly
Shall God unroll the canvas
And explain the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful
In the weaver's skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.
We must remember to trust God and rely on Him whatever comes! We do not understand all that happens. We do not have all the facts. Our vision is limited; we see from an earthly vantage point instead of from eternity. We must, therefore, trust in the wisdom, power, and love of God! This is the message of the Book of Job! God didn't tell Job "why"! He said "trust me!"
A farmer watched a mocking bird building her nest in a heap of branches pruned from the apple tree beside the house. All day long the bird toiled; in the evening the farmer destroyed the work she had done--scattering tiny twigs about and trampling them under his feet. The next day the bird patiently began building again. Again at evening time her work was destroyed. Judged by bird standards, the man was cruel. The third day she began her nest again, but this time in the rose bush by the kitchen door. In the evening, the farmer smiled on the bird and her work remained. Day after day she continued to build; the nest was completed; the eggs were laid and warmed beneath her bosom. But long before the time for hatching, the pile of branches from which she had been driven had been removed and burned. Had the far seeing farmer allowed the bird to have her way, all of her nest, her little ones, and her hope for the season would have been destroyed. She did not see beyond one day. He saw the end from the beginning.
Since God knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10) we can trust Him in all things--even those which we cannot understand! Jesus said something in a different connection which also applies very well in this connection: ""What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand later." (John 13:7)
Conclusion
Admittedly, when we are in so much pain we "do groan, beinq troubled..." (2 Cor. 5:4) we may not have the strength to even pray the pain is so great. But God is there. Just know that God will get you through this even when the pain is minute to minute and there seems no end in sight. I don't have all the answers but in my experience, when I have been at my worst, hurting or in the greatest pain and suffering, God is there and I try to remember that Christ has overcome the world. That there is a better land--a land where suffering and sorrow are unknown. God has prepared a home for us there and to that home He wishes us to come. Were it not for the heartaches, disappointments and sufferings of this world, we might forget the greater destiny that lies before us. Perhaps the sufferings of this world were designed, in part, to cause us not to be satisfied here, but to lift our eyes toward that world to come where "He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more." (Rev. 21:4)
Those who have this hope, need never fear tomorrow! Is this hope yours...? It Can Be!
Love one Another
The Church Mouse
