I was recently asked to post a blog about why bad things happen to good people. I don’t claim to be an expert on this. I don’t claim to have the best answer. I don’t even claim to admit that I once went to see “Run Away Bride” by myself in the movie theater. It was in college, my dad worked on the movie, we had a dollar theater, and it’s a good movie…back off. I digress. The following is my opinion of why bad things happen to good people.
- In America many people have an entitled works base view of God. Many people believe that if we are a good person (going to church, eating your vegetables, washing behind your ears, and not killing people) then God owes you something. The problem with this view is that the Bible teaches that we are not good. None of us are good. We are by nature selfish. We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s standard. We don’t deserve good things. We deserve hell, but because God loves us He gives us a way out. We can find forgiveness in God. But God doesn’t love us because we do something good. We should do good stuff because God is good. The truth is the fact that we have anything good we should be thanking God. When a parent gets sick and dies it’s awful, but how many people don’t have good parents? When a couple can’t get pregnant it’s an awful experience, but the fact that they are a couple is a blessing. Many people would love to be married and are not. The point is that God doesn’t owe you anything. He gave His son to die for us. That’s enough. Everything else is a blessing.
- Bad things happen because we live in a fallen world. It didn’t start off broken, but man chose to disobey God and we have been feeling the consequences ever since. We live in a world where people get sick, pain happens, hearts get broken, and good people go bald. This doesn’t make it easier to go through but it gives a reason on why bad things happen. The world is broken.
- God gives people the freedom to make decisions. People make bad choices. People make decisions to drink and drive, cheat on loved ones, and make movies like Gremlins 2. It’s awful. Because of this freedom some “good” people will be hurt. When a person makes a selfish decision someone gets hurt.
- There are consequences to our bad decisions. The Bible talks about God disciplining the ones He loves. I don’t think that this is why September 11 happened. I’d chalk that up to man having the freedom to do stupid stuff. But I do know that there are consequences to bad choices.
- There is more going on in this world then what we can see. This world is physical, but the Bible talks about a spiritual world. Now I don’t think this is like Ghostbusters, The Ring, or The Sixth Sense. Those are movies. I also don’t think this means that the Devil is to blame for all things bad. We make so many bad choices that I often think the Devil doesn’t need to intervene. I really don’t know what the Devil’s activity looks like, but I think it plays a part in this discussion.
- We don’t know the reason. If you read the book of Job from the Bible it doesn’t make a lot of sense. The first part is easier to understand but then God starts talking and it’s like do what? Luckily for me I had a professor in seminary that explained some things. I don’t remember everything he said, but I remember that he taught that God didn’t give Job a reason for his suffering. In the end He offered him a relationship instead of a reason. Sometimes we don’t know why. I don’t think I’ll ever know why God allowed us to get pregnant three years ago and then took away our baby at 8 weeks. It was a miracle that we were pregnant. We knew it was a miracle from God and we were more than shocked when the doctor told us we lost the baby. God didn’t want to teach us a lesson. He could have used any other method to do it. God loves us and I don’t think that He caused that pain in our life. God held us and has now used that situation to allow us to be a blessing to others, but I don’t think that’s why it happened. It happened. Until I get to Heaven I’ll never understand why on that one. I’m so thankful that God held us during that time.
good people go bald or bad…
Morne, it was an attempt to be funny. I meant bald.
Good points! And I'm glad someone else says 'do what?' (last paragraph) – Josh always gets onto me about that because people usually give me a blank stare when I say that.
This post is the epitome of you. You have a way of taking a subject and explaining it with truth, honesty, and your own humor and experiences. I love how you look to God and for God in your life's day to day unfolding. Great post today.
Great stuff Rob. I have to say I never would have thought the way you did on this. Although I think I'd still have trouble seeing the reason behind why bad stuff happens. Gives me something to think about though.
Chris, the point is there are many reasons and we may never understand the exact reason for our situations.
derek webb has a song about this question and answers it with another; "why do good things happen at all?" (sorry about the punctuation..don't tell larry).
Tim, nice. I hadn't heard that song.
I love this post. Thanks for blogging about it. I am one of the first people to question "why is this happening to ME? So-in-so is a big jerk…it should happen to THEM!" 😉 It's hard to get it, to not feel like we are owed something. When in reality we are already getting something we don't deserve by being alive.
I think you hit the nail on the head with your points, especially the first one. Google, "Christian Moralistic Therapeutic Deism". We treat Jesus like a gene or Jeffry from the Fresh Prince.
Shinedown has a lyric that says, "There's a hard life for every silver spoon/ There's a touch of gray for every shade of blue/ That's the way that I see life/ If there was nothing wrong/ Then there'd be nothing right."
I think it would be wrong theology to say that the goodness of God would not exist without evil, but I do know that Scripture is abundantly clear on a few things in regards to suffering: 1) Jesus was made perfect in and through suffering (and he encountered it at every level: physical, emotional, spiritual, interpersonal, etc.), so why would we expect to be greater than our Master? 2) As believers, we are not under condemnation but mercy, so everything that comes into out life in some way is an act of mercy for His glory and our ultimate joy (though we may never understand how in this life). 3) Suffering always, always, always displays true allegiance and affection…without it we may think we love, and be the one saying "Lord, Lord" while He says "I never knew you." 4) God does not fit into a box, whether cardboard or a human logical paradigm. Also, he is not limited by time or in knowledge. He intimately knows us and helps us in our iniquities (not sin, but a bent toward something). So consider this for example: say a person is always in financial stress with every investment always falling through. God may see that the biggest enemy to that person's affection for Jesus and sanctification could be financial power, so in mercy he limits it.
I could ramble for hours, maybe even days on the subject of suffering. Thanks for the post Rob!
Rob, great post with lots to think on. I personally have a hard time differentiating in my mind between God not causing bad things to happen and God allowing them to happen. I guess this is related to my trying to understand God being in control with so much misery around. I know God has his reasons, buy my mortal mind searches on and on to explain why he allows such things to happen to seemingly innocent and unaware people ~ I mean plain and simple blindsiding. I can't wait to get to heaven and finally understand it all!
Good post. I don't know that I get your seminary professors point (God had a relationship with Job pre trials), but perhaps he had more to it. I really like the rest… God cannot have humanities love without first giving humanity freedom to choose to rebel.