"Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?" is the Wrong Question

"Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?"

(The Wrong Question)

I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago.  We moved into our neighborhood the summer before I started kindergarten.  I have fond memories of kindergarten.  We made butter, took naps, drank milk, and played house.  That was before they taught kids to read Russian novels and solve multilevel structural equations in kindergarten.  My teacher's name was Miss Specken, and I adored her.  I don't remember the names of most of my classmates from back then, but I do remember Timmy.  He was a small-framed boy with blond hair, and he was really quiet.  One day he just stopped coming to school.  Over the course of the next several days we heard the story of how Timmy's home had caught fire.  Because he was afraid, Timmy hid in the closet in his bedroom.  Timmy died in that closet, at age 5.
  
When I was a freshman in college there was a senior named Myra.  Everyone who knew Myra loved her.  She was a bright student, gifted athlete, faithful friend to many, and wholly committed to Christ.  When it was discovered that Myra had cancer, people prayed and prayed.  People believed she would be healed.  But Myra died of cancer in her early 20's.

Two good people -- representative of millions and millions of other people -- for whom bad things have happened -- through no fault of their own.  Why?  Why do bad things happen to good people?

Natural disasters have taken countless lives throughout the history of the world.  Earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes -- people who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Disease, famine, poverty -- all have taken their toll on people created in God's image -- good people.  Why do bad things happen to good people?

And then there's man's inhumanity to man.  In 1673, Samuel von Pufendorf wrote, "More inhumanity has been done by man himself than any other of nature's causes."  People have done unspeakable things to other people -- horrible things.  We know of the horror of the Holocaust and the genocides that have occurred in countries like Rwanda, Cambodia and Sudan.  But there are countless other stories of individuals who have been victimized, abused, and deeply scarred both physically and emotionally by others. Why do bad things happen to good people such as these?

When suffering and evil happens in the world, a common human response is to ask "Why?"  I've asked the "why" question hundreds of times throughout my lifetime.  I want to know -- I want to understand -- I want the world to make sense.  But it doesn't.  As often as I've asked the question, I cannot find any logical reason for why a five year-old boy would die in a fire, or thousands of people would perish in an earthquake, or people would be allowed to commit such horrible acts of evil against other people. 

I cannot completely put the "why" questions to rest, but I've found there are far more important, more productive, more Godly questions to ask -- and they begin with the words "what" and "how."  "What can I do in response to this suffering?"  "How can God use me to change the situation?"  "What can I learn from this?"  "What can I teach others?"  "How can I learn to love God more through this?" And perhaps most importantly, "How can I best demonstrate God's love to others?" 

I have a friend who continues to suffer incessantly with headaches that are so bad she cannot get out of bed.  Our church is praying.  Individuals are praying.  Groups have gone to her home on several occasions to pray with and for her.  Medical advice and treatment have been sought from dozens of experts.  And yet she is still not well.  No one knows why.  But we know this -- we can, and will, continue to pray.   We can continue to trust and believe in God and His Word.  And we can show God's love to her, and her family.

God is not absent -- God is NEVER absent -- when His children suffer.  To the contrary, we have a Heavenly Father Who not only knows of our suffering, but through His Son has given us One Who suffers with us.  Jesus is Himself "a Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief."  Jesus entered into our world and experienced for Himself what it means to be human.  God knows.  Our God is a personal God Who hurts with us and feels our pain, as a parent feels the pain when their child suffers. 

So why do bad things happen to good people?  Ask the theologians.  They will all have an opinion.  But the best ones will tell you that they really don't know.  Not only that, but they'll lead you back to the God of all comfort, the source of all peace, the One Who loves us with an everlasting love.  And hopefully they'll tell you to find a way to make a difference -- to find a way to love.